Influence of non-ionic surfactants on surface activity of pesticide colloidal systems

In this paper we studied the influence of non-ionic surfactants on the surface activity of some pesticide colloidal systems. The emulsion inverse point (EIP), is the point at which the emulsion, composed of an oil (O), emulsifier and water (W), changes from a W/O to an O/W system at constant temperature; its value equals the number of milliliters of water added to the milliliters of oil present in the system when the phase inversion occurs. We have chosen the criteria EIP<1 for selecting the non-ionic surfactants conferring maximum stability for the emulsions. We have selected three surfactants NF6, NF10 and CL9 which were used in a mixture with CaDBS to obtain some pesticide emulsions. The optimum concentration of anionic and non-ionic surfactants was determined by measuring the interfacial tension.