Concentration of Pesticides Slowly Released by Diffusion

Abstract

The active concentration of a pesticide declines with time due to volatilization, absorption and translocation, microbial degradation, adsorption on soil particles and plant parts, chemical reactions, photodecomposition, and other reactions with the environment. However, slow-release formulations can provide a continuing input of pesticide. This leads to a rise and subsequent fall in the active concentration. Because diffusion is a factor in most controlled release methodologies, the concentration to be expected for release by diffusion of a substance, which then decays with time by a first order rate law, is examined theoretically. This provides guidance to the experimenter for separating the effects due to diffusion from these attributable to other and newer concepts such as water-degradable polymers. An approximate result of this exact solution is that the persistence of the substance can be increased. More precisely, the long-term behavior is like that of a more persistent pesticide with smaller first-order rate constant.