The term agrochemical or agrichemical is used as a generic term for the chemical products or pesticides used in agriculture. These include herbicides, fungicides and insecticides but also synthetic fertilizers, hormones and soil conditioning agents. Agrochemicals play an important role in modern industrialized and intensive farming methods, making possible the growth of foods on previously uncultivatable land and maximizing the yield of a given soil.
Agrochemicals have come a long way since the creation of synthetic fertilizers and the need to better understand and optimize both the agrochemical production process and the formulation make up of agrochemicals is becoming more apparent.
Malvern Panalytical can help with the analysis and optimization of your agrochemical products to assist the development of new agrochemicals and for quality control and production optimization.
Malvern Panalytical offers a range of analytical tools for the characterization of agrochemical products.
Fertilizer Powders
Fertilizers can be applied to crops as either solids or liquids, with granulated or powdered solids being the most common form. The physical properties of the powder, including its particle size distribution and particle shape are determined by its chemical composition and processing and are important for optimizing spreading properties and minimizing segregation, especially in bulk blends. Particle size can also affect dilution behaviour and activity rate of the fertilizer.
Colloidal Dispersions
For agrochemicals which are in the form of colloidal suspensions,
Zeta potential
is a critical metric for optimizing the stability of colloidal dispersions.
Pesticide
Sprays
Pesticides are most commonly applied using spray devices and along with soil particle size, the droplet size of a spray determines the run-off speed of the liquid from the soil as well as properties such as spray drift and evaporation.
Polymers in Agrochemicals
The use of polymers in agriculture is becoming more widespread with superabsorbent hydrogels being used to optimize soil properties and functional polymers used to increase the efficiency and stability of pesticides and herbicides. Polymers are also used to control the atomization behavior of agrochemical sprays.
Malvern Panalytical's range of analytical products and expertise can assist the agrochemical sector by helping to:
Mastersizer 系列激光粒度分析仪颗粒粒度智能测量方法 |
Spraytec 喷雾粒度仪喷雾剂颗粒与喷雾滴液粒度测量 |
Zetasizer 纳米粒度电位仪系列广泛应用的纳米颗粒、胶体、生物分子粒度和颗粒电荷测量系统 |
MicroCal 微量热仪系列表征生物分子稳定性及相互作用的微量热仪 |
凝胶渗透色谱仪OMNISEC系统多检测器GPC/SEC系统 |
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