| Abstract: | The rate of volatilization of the formulated herbicides triallate and terbutryn was studied in a volatilization chamber under controlled laboratory conditions using two soils with sand and loam textures, respectively. The influence of the most relevant experimental variables was investigated by measuring the amount of volatilized herbicides after their incorporation to the soils. The effect of soil temperature was studied in the range from 5 °C to 25 °C. Initial soil water content was fixed at field capacity depending on the physical characteristics of each soil. The volatilized herbicide was trapped in C18 cartridges during different time intervals and analyzed by HPLC. The volatilization losses for triallate ranged from 7 to 58%, whereas the losses for terbutryn ranged from 1 to 6%. Sorption and volatilization resulted in two coupled effects of major importance in these experiments: the sorption process was favoured as temperature decreased, whereas volatilization increased as temperature increased. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry |
