The spreading and superspeading behavior of new glucosamide-based trisiloxane surfactants on hydrophobic foliage

Abstract

In order to find how the molecular structure and HLB (hydrophilic–lipophilic balance) value of trisiloxane surfactant affect its wetting and spreading behavior on leaf surface, the time-dependent and the concentration-dependent spreading performance of five new glucosamide-based trisiloxane surfactants on wheat and cabbage leaf surface were investigated and compared with that of Silwet L-77 ®. The effect of different epicuticular waxes on surfactants’ spreading behavior was also investigated, and the extent of adsorption on epicuticular waxes was calculated. The results showed that the HLB values of surfactants play a very important role for showing superspreading behavior. Furthermore, the spreading performance was also affected by the molecular structure of surfactant and leaf epicuticular waxes. A new trisiloxane surfactant II show a good superspreading behavior on cabbage and wheat foliage, which is similar with that of Silwet L-77 ®. This indicated that surfactant II have a great potential to being an excellent foliage ‘superspreader’.