An adjuvant that increases the adhesion of pesticides on plant surfaces and improves the efficiency of pest control: Polyethylene glycol sol-gel polymer.

Pesticides play an indispensable role in agricultural production; however, conventional pesticides generally suffer from a low foliar deposition rate and poor adhesion, resulting in the actual effective dosage reaching the target pests and diseases being <0.1%. In this study, a sol-gel synthesized from polyethylene glycol as a precursor was added to an emulsifiable concentrate, and the polyhydroxy property of the sol-gel was used as an intermediate to load the pesticide to bind onto the cuticle of crop leaves to enhance its adhesion and penetration on the crop foliage. The results showed that the emulsifiable concentrate after the addition of sol-gel had a more compact structure with a regular hexagonal microstructure, that the contact angle with the leaves was reduced by 5.6–7 at different concentrations, that the adhesion performance of pesticides was increased by 26%, that the residual amount on the leaves within 72 h was significantly increased, and that the larvae of pests died at a faster rate, with a 40% increase in mortality. Therefore, sol-gel has great potential for application in improving pesticide utilization and pest control. [Display omitted] • First application of sol-gel polymers beyond extraction. • More regular microstructure after mixing pesticides with sol-gel polymers. • 26% increase in mevalonate adhesion performance with sol-gel polymers. • Sol-gel polymers increased the insecticidal efficiency of pesticides by 40%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]