BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE POLYMERS CONTAINING IONICALLY BOUND HERBICIDES FOR CONTROLLED-RELEASE FORMULATION.

Abstract

The combination of pesticides with polymeric materials for achieving formulations with controlled-release properties, have recently received considerable interest. Such combinations result in prolongation of the pesticide activity and hence fewer applications are necessary to the enhancement of agricultural production at lower cost. The present work describes our investigations of polymeric herbicides containing active moieties ionically bound to ammonium salt groups. The aim is to illustrate that the release of herbicide moieties displayed by the polymers can be controlled by changing the nature of the linkage bond, crosslinking ratio, neighbouring groups effects, and polyelectrolyte character.