Seed Treatment Coating with Polymer Auxiliaries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Seed treatment compositions face challenges in maintaining pesticide effectiveness, ensuring uniform pesticide loading, and enhancing flowability and dust-off characteristics, particularly due to the adherence and release of chemicals during handling and storage, which affects both efficacy and safety.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a specific loading of surface active compounds such as alkoxylates and block polyoxyalkylene polymers in seed treatment compositions to improve adherence, flowability, and uniformity of pesticide distribution, while maintaining safety and environmental stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If seeds are treated with pesticidal compositions, then protection against pests is improved, but the treated seeds lose pesticidal effectiveness due to chemical release during handling and storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a polymer coating as an intermediary layer between the pesticide and the external environment. This polymer matrix encapsulates the pesticide particles, preventing their release during handling and storage while allowing controlled delivery to the seed. The polymer acts as a mediator that retains the pesticide within the treatment composition until it reaches the target.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a polymer-based thin film or coating structure that envelops the pesticide particles and seed surface. This flexible polymer shell provides a physical barrier that prevents pesticide loss through dusting or volatilization during seed handling, storage, and conveying operations.
2Reliability
If seeds are treated with pesticidal compositions, then protection against pests is improved, but workers are exposed to health risks through inhalation of air-borne particles
Solution Approach 1:
The polymer coating forms a continuous film that encapsulates pesticide particles, preventing them from becoming air-borne during handling and storage. This thin film barrier eliminates the inhalation risk to workers by keeping the pesticide bound to the seed surface in a non-dustable form throughout the treatment process.
Solution Approach 2:
The polymer matrix serves as an intermediary that binds pesticide particles in a stable, non-aerosolizing form. This mediator prevents the pesticide from detaching and becoming inhalable dust, thereby protecting worker health while maintaining pest protection efficacy.
3Reliability
If seeds are treated with pesticidal compositions, then protection against pests is improved, but the treated seeds adhere or stick to each other reducing flowability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the physical and chemical parameters of the treatment composition by incorporating polymers with specific properties (molecular weight, hydrophobicity, glass transition temperature). These parameter changes allow the formulation to provide adequate adhesion for pesticide retention while maintaining seed flowability during handling and storage operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite treatment composition that combines pesticides with polymer materials having complementary properties. This composite formulation achieves a balance between adhesion (for pesticide retention) and flowability (for seed handling), as the polymer matrix provides structural integrity without excessive stickiness.
4Reliability
If seeds are treated with pesticidal compositions, then protection against pests is improved, but the pesticide loading is not uniform across seeds in the batch
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs polymers and formulation auxiliaries that promote homogeneous distribution of pesticide particles throughout the treatment composition and across the seed surface. The polymer matrix ensures uniform adhesion characteristics, resulting in consistent pesticide loading on each seed within the batch.
Solution Approach 2:
The composite formulation of pesticide-polymer-auxiliary components creates a uniform treatment mixture that adheres evenly to seeds. The synergistic interaction between components ensures consistent distribution and loading of the active ingredient across all seeds in the treated batch.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The use of these surface active compounds ensures improved flowability, reduced dust-off, and uniform pesticide loading across seeds, enhancing the effectiveness and safety of seed treatment processes while maintaining stability and compatibility with existing formulations.
Implementation Method 1
improve the adherence of such particles to the plant propagation material
Implementation Method 2
treating the seeds with a certain defined loading of certain surface active compounds
Data Source
AI summary
A method of seed treatment for a lot of seeds, which comprises treating the lot with one or more pesticides, and one or more formulation auxiliaries selected from (a) one or more alkoxylates and (b) one or more block polyoxyalkylene polymers, wherein the total loading of (a) and (b) is at least 10 grams/100kg of seeds and the loading of pesticides is at most 100grams/100kg of seeds; exempted is a loading of (a) and (b) of 18 to 24 grams/100kg of seeds when the loading of difenoconazole is 3.6 grams/100kg or when the loading of fludioxonil is 3.75 or 5 grams/100kg of seeds.