Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-23
2002-10-01
Webb, Gregory E. (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S229000, C510S220000, C510S475000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06458752
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a powder detergent composition having enhanced soil suspending properties on organic non-polar and polar soils in wash liquors which comprises a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Detergent formulators are faced with the task of devising products to remove a broad spectrum of soils and stains from fabrics. The varieties of soils and stains ranges from polar soils, such as proteinaceous, clay, and inorganic soils, to non-polar soils, such as soot, carbon-black, byproducts of incomplete hydrocarbon combustion, and organic soils. Detergent compositions have become more complex as formulators attempt to provide products which handle all types concurrently.
Formulators have been highly successful in developing traditional dispersants which are particularly useful in suspending polar, highly charged, hydrophilic particles such as clay. As yet, however, dispersants designed to disperse and suspend non-polar, hydrophobic-type soils and particulates have been more difficult to develop. Without wishing to be limited by theory, it is believed that the first step for dispersion formation is the adsorbance of the soil dispersing agent onto the soil of interest. For clay-like soils, the soil dispersing agent must adsorb onto a negatively charged surface. For organic particulates, the soil dispersing agent must adsorb onto a hydrophobic surface with little or no charge. Hence, for polar soils, like clay, a dispersing agent with some charge, such as charged polyacrylates, are employed. However, these charged dispersing agents have no driving force for adsorbing onto organic non-polar particulates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,561 describes using copolymers prepared from 50 to 90 weight percent of a vinyl ester of C
1
-C
4
aliphatic carboxylic acids, from to 35 weight percent of a N-vinyl lactam, and from 1 to 20 weight percent of a monomer containing basic nitrogen capable of forming a salt or quaternized product, in detergent compositions to inhibit soil redeposition. The disadvantage of using such copolymers, however, is that they are capable of forming cations which may complex with anionic surfactants under certain wash conditions and cause a decrease in cleaning performance. In addition, the cationic copolymers may also undesirably promote fabric graying over multiple washing cycles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,032 describes using copolymers prepared from C
4
-C
28
olefins and &agr;,&bgr;-ethylenically unsaturated dicarboxylic anhydrides in detergent formulations. The disadvantage of using such copolymers, however, is that the copolymers are not water-soluble unless hydrolyzed with NaOH.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,723,434 describes a soil removal and soil resistant detergent composition containing a vinyl amide polymer which is prepared from 5 to 100 weight percent of a vinyl amide monomer and from 0 to 95 weight percent of a vinyl ester monomer. While the detergent compositions are effective for removing soil from hydrophobic articles such as polyester, such compositions are not as effective for cleaning hydrophilic substrates such as cotton.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,145 describes detergent compositions containing ethoxylated/propoxylated polyalkyleneamine polymers, such as poly(ethyleneimine), which provide soil dispersing properties. While the detergent compositions are effective for removing nonpolar soils, such detergent compositions are not as effective for removing polar soils.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/262,566, filed Mar. 4, 1999, describes isotropic liquid detergent compositions containing polymers having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent. Such polymers are used to stabilize the isotropic liquid detergent composition and produce clear solutions by preventing phase separation. However, no mention is made of the possibility of using such polymers in powdered laundry detergents.
While liquid detergents are gaining popularity over powder detergents in the United States, powders remain more popular than liquid detergents outside the United States. Moreover, there is a trend to reduce the amount of water in the wash liquor for environmental reasons, thereby increasing the amount of dirt and soil that needs to be suspended in the wash liquor. For these reasons, there continues to be a need for a powder detergent composition which can be used to provide effective soil dispersing on organic non-polar and polar soils in wash liquors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has now been discovered that powder detergent compositions comprising polymers having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent are effective for removing and dispersing organic non-polar and polar soils from fabrics in wash liquors. Furthermore, said polymers boost the cleaning performance of hard surface and dishware detergent compositions.
The present invention provides a powder detergent composition comprising at least one surfactant and builder and from about 0.1 to about 75 weight percent, based on the total weight of the powder detergent composition, of a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent, wherein the polymer is the polymerization product of 50 to 99.999 weight percent of a ethylenically unsaturated acid monomer and 0.001 to 50 weight percent of a C
1
to C
24
chain transfer agent, wherein the weight percents are based on the weight of the total monomer and chain transfer agent.
According to another aspect the invention provides a powder detergent composition comprising at least one surfactant and builder and from about 0.1 to about 75 weight percent, based on the total weight of the powder detergent composition, of a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent, wherein the polymer is the polymerization product of 50 to 99.999 weight percent of a ethylenically unsaturated acid monomer, 0.1 to 50 weight percent of a ethylenically unsaturated comonomer, and 0.001 to 50 weight percent of a C
1
to C
24
chain transfer agent, wherein the weight percents are based on the weight of the total monomer and chain transfer agent.
According to an additional aspect the invention provides a method for cleaning textiles comprising preparing the powder detergent composition as described above; contacting the powder detergent composition with one or more textiles wherein at least one of the textiles contains soil; and removing at least a portion of the soil from the textile containing soil.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention provides a powder detergent composition which contains at least one surfactant and builder and from about 0.1 to about 75 weight percent, based on the total weight of the powder detergent composition, of a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymer having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent. Preferably, the powder detergent composition contains from about 0.5 to about 25 weight percent, more preferably from about 1 to about 10 weight percent of the polymer.
The polymer having pendant acid functionality and a terminal fragment of a chain transfer agent comprises a hydrophilic “backbone” component which is prepared from at least one monomer as discussed above and a “terminal” portion which is a fragment of a chain transfer agent. The hydrophilic backbone generally is a linear or branched molecular composition preferably containing one type of relatively hydrophilic monomer unit wherein the monomer is preferably sufficiently soluble to form at least a 1% by weight solution when dissolved in water. The only limitation to the structure of the hydrophilic backbone is that a polymer corresponding to the hydrophilic backbone made from the backbone monomeric constituents is relatively water soluble (solubility in water at ambient temperature and at pH of 3.0 to 12.5 is preferably mor
National Starch and Chemical Investment Holding Corporation
Roland, Esq. Thomas F.
Webb Gregory E.
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