SPAN Soil Surfactant

A New Dimension in Surfactant Chemistry

At the heart of the SPAN’s extended term soil surfactant technology is a new copolymerization process that allows selected surfactant candidates to be grafted onto a large fully functional surfactant parent molecule in a manner similar to branches on a tree. This branched configuration of independent copolymer surfactants allows the final product to be “tuned” for increased surfactant performance and provides a means to compensate for microbial degradation of the surfactant’s structure — the primary cause of performance decay.

Unlike surfactants whose surfactant characteristics are terminated when disassociated by the cleavage of their molecular structure (including “long-term” surfactants), the SPAN’s branched chain molecule is constructed in a manner that allows surfactant branches to be removed from the parent surfactant molecule, attach to water repellent sites on soil particles and retain their surfactant activity.

Once attached to hydrophobic areas on the soil particle surface, the copolymers establish new sites of hydration. This greatly extends the time that SPAN will continue to provide improved hydration on water repellent soils. It should be noted that the parent molecule also retains its surfactant structure and activity – even when all its branches are removed.