NMR of Adsorbed Molecules with a View Toward Pesticide Chemistry

Abstract

We ask of pesticides that they kill pests and, having done that, bother us no more. Having neglected the second desideratum we are faced with the twin necessities of (a) designing new pesticides which meet this second requirement and (b) assaying and if possible, remedying the damage produced through this neglecto In this article we are concerned with the application of NMR methods to studies of adsorbed molecules, i.e. to studies of surface-chemical systems. Thus, we are in a sense two steps removed from a direct assault on the above problems, the first being the linking of pesticide chemistry to surface chemistry, and the second being a demonstration of the relevant insights gained from the application of NMR to surface chemistry. The first step is easy: a pesticide molecule upon application must adhere to some desired substrate; then it must chemically interact with the macromolecular structure of the pest and cause its destruction; it must next be eluted from the soil by means of natural waters: all of these processes depend on surface chemical adsorption desorption equilibria, on the transport of molecules from point to point by diffusion or large scale chromatographic processes.