Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-14
2001-08-28
Ogden, Necholus (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S424000, C510S426000, C510S427000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06281181
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to liquid or gel dishwashing detergent compositions suitable for use in manual dishwashing operations. These liquid detergent compositions contain a surfactant system which comprises mid-chain branched surfactants. Additionally, these compositions optionally comprise other surfactants, suds boosters, viscosity control agents and other adjuvants which in combination serve to impart consumer preferred food soil cleaning and sudsing characteristics to such dishwashing detergent products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Light-duty liquid (LDL) or gel detergent compositions useful for manual dishwashing are well known in the art. Such products are generally formulated to provide a number of widely diverse performance and aesthetics properties and characteristics. First and foremost, liquid or gel dishwashing products must be formulated with types and amounts of surfactants and other cleaning adjuvants that will provide acceptable solubilization and removal of food soils, especially greasy soils, from dishware being cleaned with, or in aqueous solutions formed from, such products.
Heavily soiled dishware can present special problems during manual dishwashing operations. Articles such as plates, utensils, pots, pans, crockery and the like may be heavily soiled in the sense that relatively large amounts of food soils and residues may still be found on the dishware at the time such soiled dishware is to be manually washed. Dishware may also be heavily soiled in the sense that food soil residues are especially tenaciously adhered or stuck to the surfaces of the dishware to be cleaned. This can result from the type of food soils present or from the nature of the dishware surfaces involved. Tenacious food soil residues may also result from the type of cooking operations to which the soiled dishware had been subjected. To clean such dishware an appropriate surfactant combination must be employed.
In addition to being suitable for cleaning dishware, LDL or gel compositions will also desirably possess other attributes that enhance the aesthetics or consumer perception of the effectiveness of the manual dishwashing operation. Thus, useful hand dishwashing liquids or gels should also employ materials that enhance the sudsing characteristics of the wash solutions formed from such products. Sudsing performance entails both the production of a suitable amount of suds in the wash water initially, as well as the formation of suds which last well into the dishwashing process.
Hand dishwashing liquids or gels should also employ materials that enhance product phase stability at low temperatures. Lack of phase stability can lead to unacceptable theological and aesthetic properties as well as to performance issues. Such low temperatures can be encountered in warehouses, in the consumer's garage, in the consumer's automobile, during street vending, on the kitchen window sill, and the like. Further, hand dishwashing liquids and gels should employ materials that enhance the dissolution, or rate of product mixing, with water. Further, hand dishwashing liquids and gels should employ materials that enhance the tolerance of the system to hardness, especially to avoid the precipitation of the calcium salts of anionic surfactants. Precipitation of the calcium salts of anionic surfactants is known to cause suppression of suds and irritation to the skin.
Given the foregoing, there is a continuing need to formulate manual dishwashing liquids and gels that provide an acceptable and desirable balance between cleaning performance and product aesthetics. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide light-duty liquid or gel dishwashing compositions which are especially effective at removing food soils from dirty dishware when such compositions are used in the context of a manual dishwashing operation.
It has further been found, that the mid-chain branched surfactants provide significantly improved tolerance to hardness, significantly improved low temperature stability of the finished product and significantly improved rates of mixing of the product with water.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such compositions having desirable rheological characteristics for use in either a direct application to dishware context or in an aqueous dishwashing solution context.
It is a further object of the present invention to realize such compositions that provide suitable and desirable sudsing performance.
It has been found that certain selected surfactant systems which comprise the mid-chain branched surfactants defined below, suds boosters, viscosity control agents and other adjuvants can be made to provide dishwashing compositions that achieve the foregoing objectives. The elements of these selected combinations of ingredients are described as follows:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to aqueous light-duty liquid or gel detergent compositions having especially desirable soil removal and sudsing performance when such compositions are used to clean heavily soiled dishware. Such compositions comprise up to 70%, by weight of a surfactant system comprising a branched surfactant mixture which comprises mid-chain branched and linear surfactant compounds.
The surfactant system comprises at least about 10%, preferably at least about 20%, more preferably at least about 30%, most preferably at least about 50%, by weight of a branched surfactant mixture, said branched surfactant mixture comprising mid-chain branched and linear surfactant compounds, said linear compounds comprising less than 25%, preferably less than about 15%, more preferably less than about 10% and most preferably less than about 5%, by weight of the branched surfactant mixture and the mid-chain branched compounds have the formula:
A
b
−B.
Wherein A
b
is a hydrophobic C9 to C18, total carbons in the moiety, preferably from about C10 to about C15, mid-chain branched alkyl moiety having: (1) a longest linear carbon chain attached to the—B moiety in the range of from 8 to 17 carbon atoms; (2) one or more C
1
-C
3
alkyl moieties branching from this longest linear carbon chain; (3) at least one of the branching alkyl moieties is attached directly to a carbon of the longest linear carbon chain at a position within the range of position 3 carbon, counting from carbon #1 which is attached to the—B moiety, to position &ohgr;−2 carbon, the terminal carbon minus 2 carbons; and (4) the surfactant composition has an average total number of carbon atoms in the A
b
moiety in the above formula within the range of greater than 12 to about 14.5.
B is a hydrophilic moiety selected from the group consisting of OSO
3
M, (EO/PO)mOSO
3
M, (EO/PO)mOH and mixtures thereof. EO/PO are alkoxy moieties selected from the group consisting of ethoxy, propoxy, and mixtures thereof, and m is at least about 0.01 to about 30. The average total number of carbon atoms in the A
b
moiety in the branched surfactant mixture defined above should be within the range of greater than about 12 to about 14.5, preferably greater than about 12 to about 14 and most preferably greater than about 12 to about 13.5.
The surfactant system of the liquid detergent compositions of the present invention can optionally comprise additional surfactants such as anionics and nonionics. If present, the anionic surfactant component essentially comprises alkyl ether sulfates containing from about 9 to 18 carbon atoms in the alkyl group. These alkyl ether sulfates also contain from about 1 to 12 moles of ethylene oxide per molecule. If present, the nonionic surfactant component essentially comprises C
8
-C
18
polyhydroxy fatty acids amides. In the nonionic surfactant components such polyhydroxy fatty acids amides may also be combined with from about 0.2% to 2% of the composition of a nonionic co-surfactant. This nonionic co-surfactant is selected from C
8
-C
18
alcohol ethoxylates having from about 1 to 30 moles of ethylene oxide, ethylene oxide-propylene oxide block co-polymer surfactants and combinations of th
Connor Daniel Stedman
Cripe Thomas Anthony
Scheper William Michael
Stidham Robert Emerson
Vinson Phillip Kyle
Bolam Brian M.
Chuey S. Robert
Hasse Donald E.
Ogden Necholus
The Procter & Gamble & Company
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