4. Effects of silicone oil additives on pesticide performance
4.1 Improving wettability and spreading
After adding silicone oil adjuvant, the surface tension of pesticide droplets is reduced, which reduces the contact angle on the surface of crop leaves and significantly improves wettability. The droplets can quickly spread to form a uniform liquid film, greatly increasing the coverage area of the pesticide on the leaf surface, allowing the pesticide to contact the target organism more comprehensively and improve the control effect. For example, when controlling rice diseases and pests, pesticides with added silicone oil adjuvants can spread better on the rice leaves, reducing the blank area on the leaves and improving the control effect of diseases and pests such as rice blast and rice planthoppers.
4.2 Enhanced permeability
Silicone oil adjuvants can promote the penetration of active ingredients of pesticides into plant tissues or insect bodies. For systemic pesticides, silicone oil adjuvants can accelerate their conduction within the plant body, reach the site of action faster, and improve the control effect. For contact pesticides, enhanced permeability helps the pesticides penetrate the wax layer on the insect's body surface more quickly, allowing the insect to come into contact with the active ingredients more quickly, thereby improving the insecticidal efficiency. Studies have shown that when controlling citrus red spider mites, acaricides with added silicone oil adjuvants can penetrate the body surface of red spiders more quickly, significantly increasing their mortality rate.
4.3 Improve adhesion
Silicone oil additives can increase the adhesion between pesticide droplets and crop surfaces, making pesticides more firmly attached to crop surfaces and reducing pesticide shedding caused by wind, vibration and other factors. This helps to prolong the retention time of pesticides on the crop surface and ensure that the control effect continues for a longer period of time. For example, in the prevention and control of fruit tree diseases and pests, pesticides with added silicone oil adjuvants can better adhere to the surface of fruits and leaves, maintain the effect of disease and pest control for a longer period of time, and reduce the number of applications.
4.4 Improve the ability to resist rainwater erosion
Since silicone oil additives enhance the adhesion between pesticides and crop surfaces, the pesticides are not easily washed away by rain even if it rains after application. The study found that under simulated rainfall conditions, the amount of residue on the crop surface of pesticides with silicone oil adjuvants was significantly higher than that of pesticides without adjuvants, thus ensuring that the pesticides can still maintain a certain control effect after rainfall and reducing the risk of crop failure. Number of reapplications due to rain wash.
V. Environmental Impact and Safety
5.1 Impact on soil environment
Although silicone oil adjuvants themselves are relatively stable, the large-scale use of pesticides containing silicone oil adjuvants may cause silicone oil to accumulate in the soil. At present, there is insufficient research on the long-term behavior and ecological effects of silicone oil in soil. However, judging from its chemical structure, silicone oil may be difficult to be degraded by microorganisms in soil, and long-term accumulation may have a certain impact on soil structure and microbial communities. Therefore, further research is needed on its degradation pathway and ecological risks in soil.
5.2 Impact on the water environment
During the application process, some pesticides and adjuvants may enter the water body through surface runoff and other means. The low surface tension characteristics of silicone oil additives may affect the surface tension of water, thereby affecting the living environment of aquatic organisms. In addition, the combination of silicone oil adjuvants and active ingredients of pesticides may change the migration and transformation behavior of pesticides in water bodies and increase their potential toxicity to aquatic organisms. Therefore, when using pesticides containing silicone oil adjuvants, care should be taken to avoid pollution to the aquatic environment.
5.3 Impact on agricultural product safety
Current research shows that at reasonable dosages, silicone oil additives themselves have little impact on the safety of agricultural products. However, if silicone oil additives are used excessively, it may lead to an increase in the amount of pesticide residues in agricultural products, thus affecting the quality and safety of agricultural products. Therefore, in agricultural production, silicone oil additives must be used strictly according to the prescribed dosage to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products.
VI. Conclusion
Silicone oil additives have a significant effect on improving the performance of pesticides in the agricultural field. They can improve the wettability, permeability, adhesion and rainwater resistance of pesticides, thereby effectively improving the control effect of pesticides, reducing the amount of pesticides used, and reducing Agricultural production costs. However, when using silicone oil additives, its potential impact on the environment and agricultural product safety needs to be fully considered. In the future, we should further strengthen the research on the behavior and ecological effects of silicone oil additives in the environment, formulate scientific and reasonable usage specifications, ensure their safe and efficient application in agricultural production, and provide strong support for the sustainable development of agriculture.