Agricultural Silicone Super Spreading Agent

Agricultural Silicone Super Spreading Agent is a heptamethyltrisiloxane-based adjuvant engineered specifically to trigger the phenomenon known as super-spreading — where a spray droplet, instead of simply flattening, actively spreads outward across a hydrophobic surface far beyond what surface tension reduction alone would predict. This behaviour is driven by a self-reinforcing Marangoni flow at the droplet edge, unique to trisiloxane surfactant chemistry, and it is what separates a true super-spreader from an ordinary wetting or spreading adjuvant.

At its recommended concentration, this product reduces dynamic surface tension to approximately 20.5 mN/m — among the lowest achievable with any agricultural surfactant chemistry — and produces a spreading area exceeding 300 mm² per 10 µL droplet on a hydrophobic reference surface, roughly 3.5 times the coverage of a standard non-ionic surfactant. This level of spreading is specifically valuable on grassy and hard-to-wet weed species such as barnyardgrass, johnsongrass, and other narrow-leaf, heavily cuticle-waxed targets where conventional sprays simply bead up and roll off the leaf blade.

Because super-spreading also drives the droplet into stomatal openings via a mechanism called stomatal infiltration, this adjuvant is frequently paired with systemic actives — glyphosate, glufosinate, sethoxydim, and clethodim — where entry through stomata provides a faster route to the vascular system than cuticular diffusion alone. Field data show that stomatal infiltration can begin within minutes of application under favourable humidity conditions, well ahead of the hours typically required for cuticular penetration.

This intensity of spreading comes with an important trade-off: because droplets flatten so dramatically, retention on very small or narrow targets can be reduced if application volume and droplet size are not adjusted accordingly. For this reason, the product is formulated for professional use with specific guidance on spray volume (typically lower per-hectare water rates) and droplet size (coarser than standard, 150–300 µm) to balance spreading intensity against retention.

The product remains low-foaming despite its extreme surface activity, and is compatible with high-speed ground sprayers as well as UAV platforms, where its rapid spreading is especially valuable given the small droplet volumes typical of drone application.