Thickening glyphosate formulations
View Patent ↗The present invention generally relates to a glyphosate formulation with enhanced viscosity, said formulation containing a thickening composition comprising at least one nitrogen-containing surfactant.
1. A method of thickening a glyphosate formulation which comprises adding to said formulation a thickening effective amount of a thickening composition for the purpose of thickening the glyphosate formulation, wherein the thickening composition comprises at least one nitrogen containing surfactant of formula
where R 4 is a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon chain having an average of about 22 carbon atoms derived from erucic acid; n=1-4, m=1-4, and X − is an anion.
2. The method of claim 1 characterized in that said glyphosate formulation has an increased viscosity of 5 cps or more in a concentrate with about 10% or more glyphosate or at least 1 cps in a ready-to-spray solution after the addition of the thickening composition.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding to the formulation a sulfonate derivative, an alkyl alpha olefin sulfonate, an alkyl alpha olefin salicylate, or mixtures thereof.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the sulfonate derivative is sodium xylene sulfonate.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the concentration of said thickening composition is from 0.05 to 10% by weight based on the weight of the thickened glyphosate formulation.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein n is 1 or 2, and m is 1 or 2.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein X − is an anion selected from the group consisting of chloride, bromide, and methylsulfate.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the concentration of glyphosate in the thickened glyphosate formulation is from 0.5% to 45% ae.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein said thickening composition comprises erucicamine-2EO methylchloride quaternary.