Clariant: Synergen™ GA- A novel biological enhancer for salts of agrochemicals

By Marcio Navega, Director of Clariant Crop Solutions Asia Pacific

Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, addresses performance and environmental considerations of today’s arable farmers with a pioneering renewable-based adjuvant that enhances the performance of high-electrolyte agrochemical formulations.

Synergen^TM GA belongs to Clariant’s innovative family of glucamides which set the performance standard to a new level in a wide range of industries, including Personal Care, Home Care, and  Paints & Coatings. This high salt tolerant Synergen™ GA is a breakthrough in the development of stable, effective, and more environmentally- and health-compatible agrochemicals.

Due to the increased resistance of weeds against the worldwide leading herbicide glyphosate, many new co-formulations are being developed. These glyphosate systems are also the dominant herbicides for genetically modified and, glyphosate or multiple herbicide tolerant crops. New water soluble formulations (SL, SC) often contain high concentrations of salts of agrochemicals and thus are high-electrolyte solutions. Since the majority of weeds are difficult to wet and modern nozzle technology, that address drift problems, produce larger and less adhering droplets, the wetting power is a key adjuvant function. Only a few non-ionic adjuvants have high cloud points and are good wetting agents and therefore most adjuvants in SL formulations are cationic or anionic, or anionic in SC  formulations or, increasingly, amphoteric. However, these adjuvants are often not combinable with other actives and cause other problems like fish toxicity, plant compatibility, or physical miscibility in spray tank preparations including excessive foaming.

New novel biological enhancers for high-electrolyte formulations of agrochemicals are needed

Synergen GA provides the answers to the many current needs of the agriculture sector and it is the new surfactant to be used in water soluble formulations. This novel technology is easy to incorporate within a formulation and it is even possible to achieve foam-free formulations, which is thanks to its capacity to work well with defoamers. It does not show significant viscosity changes in the formulation and can be used for the development of agrochemical and foliar fertilizer formulations the same as for the development of tank mix adjuvants. Synergen GA works particularly well with glyphosate, glufosinate, dicamba salts, 2,4-D, sulfonylureas, triketones,  macro and micronutrients and water conditioner salts among others.

Excellent spray retention and coverage

To ensure efficient agrochemical delivery, adjuvants have to give good spray retention and crop coverage.  Synergen GA, is a powerful wetting agent that fulfills this function and allow adhesion of droplets across the full size distribution and this for all leaf surfaces. Synergen GA at concentration of 0.2% in the spray solution, improved significantly the retention of a commercial agrochemical formulation sprayed to a difficult to wet leaf surface (Fig. 1). At this recommended concentration in the spray in contrast to other traditional adjuvant, Synergen GA does not increase the fraction of driftable droplets. Due to the low use concentrations, Synergen GA is the right fit to be used in low water spray applications.   
Coverage

Once the spray water has evaporated, Synergen™ GA is able to produce a film on the leave surface, which modifies the spray deposit properties of agrochemical products and allows both contact and systemic active ingredients (as well as fertilizer salts) to be dissolved and remain in an optimal physical state. These solubilizer and re-dissolution properties of Synergen GA allow salts to be active and considerably enhance their bioavailability (Fig. 2)  
Penetration

Although Synergen GA is a non-penetrant wetting agent, the enhanced deposit properties and higher bioavailability allow the active to penetrate in higher quantities across plant membranes. Two different product blends based on Synergen GA exemplify how formulation with this product can be used to achieve a balance between penetration and selectivity as shown in Fig 3 for mesotrione.
Mesotrione penetrated very slowly with 2% after 24 h and the total penetration after 48 h was only 3% of the amount applied. By making modifications to the Synergen GA blends, other formulation features like the speed of penetration, rainfastness, active ingredient availability and residual efficacy can be adapted accordingly. The addition of the Synergen GA STAR showed a 4-fold slower penetration after 24 h in comparison to the Synergen GA + AMS and humectants but the active availability and residual efficacy is much higher with the former Synergen GA blend. The Synergen GA + AMS and humectants blend in contrast, showed a very rapid penetration, which is 8-fold faster than the mesotrione alone. This formulation show particularly an enhanced rainfastness profile. These results indicate that kinetics of penetration, selectivity and active bioavailability among others of an agrochemical formulation can be optimized accordingly with different Synergen GA blends fitting the particular requirements of agrochemical or fertilizer salts.

Uptake and translocation

Synergen™ GA is fully plant compatible with zero phytotoxicity at all concentrations and crop developmental stages tested. The uptake and translocation of the systemic herbicide glyphosate in the conductive tissue of weeds is maximum in the presence of Synergen™ GA. Glyphosate translocation in the presence of Synergen GA was not disturbed and the herbicide was able to move completely along the completely plant, showing upwards and downwards translocation (Fig 4)

Quality label for sustainability excellence

Synergen GA is a product awarded with the EcoTain® label, which is Clariant’s own quality label for flagship products that illustrates sustainability excellence. Synergen GA reflects the trend towards using renewable feedstock instead of fossil fuel based ingredients and to reduce CO2 emissions. It is based on natural, renewable resources (95% renewable carbon index) with no human hazard label and with zero fish toxicity. The product is REACH approved and EPA registered.