Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Effervescent or pressurized fluid containing – Organic pressurized fluid
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-13
2002-10-15
Krass, Frederick (Department: 1614)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Effervescent or pressurized fluid containing
Organic pressurized fluid
C424S070110, C424SDIG001, C424SDIG002, C424S484000, C514S724000, C514S937000, C514S957000, C514S675000, C514S715000, C239S337000, C239S372000, C239S573000, C239S373000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464960
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to is a water-containing aerosol hair spray containing hair-setting polymers and a specially selected mixture of solvents and propellants, wherein the substances classified as VOC (volatile organic compounds) are preferably contained in a maximum amount of 55%.
2. Prior Art
Aerosol hair sprays were and are commonly used in the form of polymer solutions or polymer dispersions in an alcoholic medium. These conventional hair sprays containing high amounts of VOC are characterized by outstanding product and use properties. From the standpoint of environmental protection and in view of anticipated legal regulations, there is a need for reducing as much as possible the amount of VOC in hair sprays including, among other compounds, also the alcoholic solvents, such as ethanol and isopropanol and the common propellants such as, propane, butane or dimethyl ether which until now have commonly been used in hair sprays.
Products with a maximum VOC content of 80% are already known. As a rule, however, the use properties of these 80% VOC formulations are clearly worse than those of conventional hair sprays, and the performance is only just acceptable or deficient (Aerosol and Spray Report, vol. 35, No. 5/96, page 254 ff.). They give less hold and cause more complaints and a general business downturn. For the 55% VOC formulations, more problems are expected, and it is anticipated that either a further deterioration in use properties or a marked increase in cost will have to be accepted. Known approaches to 55% VOC formulations are based either on an increased water content in combination with dimethyl ether or propane/butane or a dimethyl ether/butane mixture as propellants or on water-free formulations in combination with propellants classified as non-VOC, namely 1,1-difluoroethane or 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane. The currently known 55% VOC formulations, however, do not have the outstanding use properties of conventional water-free hair sprays with a high VOC content. An increased water content causes multiple problems, for example less hair hold, higher curl droop effect, higher degree of wetness, higher tack of the polymer film during the drying phase, larger drop size of the spray, inferior spray pattern, foaming during spraying, higher viscosity with an attendant inferior sprayability, longer drying time, lack of resistance to hydrolysis and corrosion, inferior compatibility with solvents, cosolvents, propellants and/or polymers, which manifests itself in inferior storage stability, inferior cold resistance or in the formation of turbidity, precipitates or several liquid phases Thus far, end users and hair dressers have always rated the main criteria of aqueous or aqueous-alcoholic hair sprays, namely hair setting, hair crosslinking, feel (stiffness, tack, smoothness) and drying time as unacceptably inferior. The exclusive use of fluorocarbons as non-VOC propellants in water-free formulations has the drawback that such formulations are highly cost-intensive because of the high price of fluorocarbons. Acetone is currently not used in hair spray formulations as replacement for the otherwise commonly employed lower alcohol solvents (Aerosol and Spray Report, vol. 37, No. 6/98, page 18), because acetone has a number of serious drawbacks: it has an unacceptable odor that cannot be masked with perfume; it evaporates too quickly so that the sprayed-on solution does not adequately flow on the hair resulting in inferior crosslinking and inferior setting; polymers that are readily soluble in water or water/alcohol are not soluble or are only insufficiently soluble in acetone; polymers soluble in water/acetone are often sparingly soluble in water and, hence, during the rapid evaporation of acetone precipitate onto the hair too rapidly before a film can form, which results in inferior hair setting.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Hence it is an object of the invention was to optimize further the properties of water-containing aerosol hair sprays with a reduced VOC content and to approximate as much as possible the properties of conventional water-free hair sprays with a high VOC content without excessively increasing formulation costs.
It has now been found that this objective can be reached by use of a water-containing aerosol hair spray comprising hair-setting polymers and a special combination of certain selected solvents and propellants, preferably in certain selected amounts.
Hence, the object of the invention is an aerosol attained by hair spray consisting of a hair spray composition, a pressurized container for containing the hair spray composition and a spraying or valve device for dispensing the hair spray composition from the container, the composition according to the invention, the composition according to the invention containing
(A) at least one hair-setting polymer,
(B) 10 to 40 wt % of at least one alcohol with 1 to 4 carbon atoms,
(C) 10 to 30 wt % of water,
(D) 1 to 30 wt % of at least one cosolvent selected from the group consisting of acetone, methyl acetate or a mixture thereof, and
(E) 20 to 75 wt % of at least one propellant, said propellant preferably being a combination of 15 to 45 wt % (based on the total composition) of dimethyl ether and 5 to 30 wt % (based on the total composition) of at least one propellant classified as non-VOC, selected from among fluorocarbons.
The present invention is eminently suited to the preparation of formulations with a reduced content of-organic volatile compounds (VOC), for example of VOC 80% or VOC 55% formulations. The composition according to the invention therefore contains a maximum of 80 wt % and particularly a maximum of 55 wt % of constituents classified as VOC. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) defines VOC as substances with a vapor pressure of >0.1 mm Hg at 20°C. or as substances with 12 or less carbon atoms. On the basis of this definition, a number of substances, for example carbon dioxide, methylene chloride, acetone, methyl acetate, fluorochloro-carbons and fluorocarbons are excluded because of their low or zero photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP).
The hair-setting polymer is preferably contained in the composition according to the invention in an amount from 3 to 20 wt % and particularly from 5 to 10 wt %. Suitable polymers are nonionic, anionic or amphoteric polymers soluble in the solvent/propellant mixture of the invention, and particularly copolymers derived from at least one hydrophilic and at least one hydrophobic monomer.
Suitable anionic polymers are the synthetic homopolymers or copolymers containing monomer units with neutralizable acid groups, optionally copolymerized with comonomers devoid of acid groups. Suitable acid groups are sulfonic, phosphoric and carboxylic acid groups among which carboxylic groups are preferred. Suitable acid groups-containing monomers are, for example, acrylic, methacrylic, crotonic and maleic acid or maleic anhydride, aldehydocarboxylic acids or ketocarboxylic acids.
Comonomers not substituted with acid groups are, for example, acrylamide, methacrylamide, alkyl- and dialkylacrylamide, alkyl- and dialkylmethacrylamide, alkyl acrylate, alkyl methacrylate, vinylcaprolactone, vinylpyrrolidone, vinyl esters, vinyl alcohol, propylene glycol or ethylene glycol, amino-substituted vinyl monomers, for example dialkylaminoalkyl acrylate, dialkylaminoalkyl methacrylate, monoalkylaminoalkyl acrylate and monoalkylaminoalkyl methacrylate, the alkyl groups of these monomers preferably being C
1
to C
7
alkyl groups and particularly C
1
to C
3
alkyl groups.
Suitable anionic polymers are, in particular, noncrosslinked homopolymers of acrylic acid or methacrylic acid or homopolymers of said acids crosslinked with a polyfunctional agent, furthermore the copolymers of acrylic acid or methacrylic acid and monomers selected from the group consisting of acrylate or methacrylate esters, acrylamides, methacrylamides and vinylpyrrolidone, homopolymers of crotonic acid and copolymers of crotonic acid and monomers se
Herfurt Ulrich
Staehle Liane
Krass Frederick
Ostrup Clinton
Striker Michael J.
Wella Aktiengesellschaft
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