Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2002-05-28
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...
C510S421000, C510S422000, C510S479000, C510S488000, C510S506000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06395694
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to solid and liquid detergents and cleaners comprising fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates having very narrow homolog distribution as skin-friendly, low-foaming and environmentally compatible surfactant having very good detergency and good solubility behavior.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Modern detergents and cleaners, whether in solid or in liquid form, are available commercially as formulations with high concentrations of detersive substances. Advantages in this connection are the minimizing of transportation, storage and packaging costs, and improved handling for the consumer. However, a problem for the manufacturer of liquid concentrates and solid, in particular compressed, products with high surfactants contents is an unfavorable dissolution behavior in aqueous liquor.
It is known that anionic surfactants, for example alkylsulfates, in high concentrations, i.e. in amounts above 8% by weight, in particular in combination with nonionic surfactants, lead to considerable gel formation and thus to poorer flushability in the washing machine.
In order to avoid gel formation during the preparation or storage of liquid detergents and in order to achieve suitable viscosities of the formulations, non-surface-active organic solvents are frequently added. For example, in the specifications WO 98/00510 and WO 98/00511, nonaqueous liquid detergents are described which comprise, as solubility promoter, approximately 20% by weight of polyethylene glycols or glycol ethers. It is desirable to be able to dispense with compounds which exhibit no or little detersive ability.
WO 93/102176 proposes a process for the preparation of solid detergents and cleaners with high bulk density, in which, to improve the dissolution behavior, structure breakers, for example polyethylene glycol or polypropylene glycol, their sulfates and/or disulfates, sulfosuccinates and/or sulfosuccinates or mixtures thereof, are used.
The solubility of detergents and cleaners can also be improved by increasing the surfactant content, in particular by the use of nonionic surfactants, for example ethoxylated fatty alcohols. A disadvantage is that the solid detergent particles stick together, as a result of which the flowability and the flushability is impaired.
Ethoxylated fatty alcohols in liquid concentrates tend to form a gel phase upon dilution with water. Although other surfactant systems in detergents and cleaners impart good solubility to the composition, they exhibit poorer detergency, meaning that relatively large amounts of detergent and cleaner must be used.
Another aim in the preparation of detergents and cleaners is to supply compositions with high detersive substance contents and low foam formation.
The Japanese patent application Heisei 6-116 599 describes granular detergents which comprise fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates as nonionic surfactants to improve the solubility.
EP-A-0 814 152 describes the preparation of solid detergents and cleaners comprising, as anionic surfactant, C
8
-C
22
-alkylsulfates in solid form and from 3 to 20% by weight, based on the C
8
-C
22
-alkylsulfates, of carboxylic acid alkyl ester alkoxylates.
DE-A-195 09 752 claims a process for the preparation of compressed detergents and cleaners with a high bulk density, where, as solid constituents, anionic surfactants, builder substances and alkylating agents are used, and, as liquid constituents, nonionic surfactants with more than 50% by weight of fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates, based on the nonionic surfactant content, are used. WO 96/05284 describes nonaqueous bleach-containing liquid detergents and cleaners comprising from 20 to 78% by weight of nonionic surfactants, preferably fatty acid methyl ester ethoxylates.
The fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates mentioned in DE-A-195 09 752 and in WO 96/05284 can, according to the information therein, be prepared by the process described in WO 91/15441 and WO 90/13533 by alkoxylation of fatty acid esters in the presence of hydrophobicized hydrotalcites or calcinated hydrotalcites as catalysts.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,046 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,045, it is shown that the alkoxylation of fatty acid alkyl esters in the presence of the catalysts sodium hydroxide, sodium methoxide or hydrotalcites leads to products with a high content of unreacted fatty acid alkyl ester and a relatively broad distribution of fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates.
The object of the invention was to develop liquid and solid detergents and cleaners which exhibit good solubility and low gel formation, low foam formation and also improve detergency compared with the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object is achieved according to the invention by preparing aqueous or nonaqueous detergents and cleaners which comprise such fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates which, compared with the prior art, have a considerably narrower homolog distribution.
The invention provides detergents and cleaners which comprise fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates of the Formula 1
R
1
—COO(AO)
n
—R
2
(1)
where R
1
is a straight-chain or branched alkyl or alkenyl group having from 5 to 22, preferably from 8 to 18, carbon atoms, R
2
is C
1
-C
6
-alkyl or C
2
-C
6
-alkenyl, preferably methyl, AO is a C
2
-C
4
-alkylene oxide unit, and n is a number from 1 to 20, preferably from 3 to 12, in particular from 4 to 10, and these fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates contain less than 14% by weight of compounds with a content of not more than (a−3) —AO groups and less than 16% by weight of compounds with a content of not below (a+3) —AO groups, where a is it the number of —AO groups with the maximum frequency.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
An essential feature of the present invention is the narrow homolog distribution of the alkoxylation products as defined above. This definition will be described in more detail below for a compound of the Formula 1 with the maximum frequency of the —AO groups of 10 (a=10). For this case, the amount of alkoxylated analogous compounds which contain 7 and less than 7 —AO groups (a−3) should be less than 14% by weight. Conversely, the amount of alkoxylated compounds with a degree of alkoxylation of 13 or more than 13 should be less than 16% by weight.
The same applies to the fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates with other numbers for the maximum frequency of the —AO groups. The homolog distribution defined in this way is significantly narrower than in the case of the fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates, as are obtained in the case of the products by the process described in WO 90/13533 and WO 91/15441, and the compounds defined here having a narrower homolog distribution are notable for significantly better detergency and low gel formation during the dissolution procedure. The compounds of the Formula 1 defined in this way are referred to below as “narrow range” fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates.
The “narrow range” fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates of the Formula 1 having the given narrow homolog distribution and used in the detergents and cleaners according to the invention can be prepared by two different methods:
1. By alkoxylation, in particular ethoxylation, of fatty acid alkyl esters in the presence of a catalyst or a catalyst mixture.
For the synthesis of the “narrow range” fatty acid alkyl ester alkoxylates according to the invention, the following catalysts are suitable: alkaline earth metal salts of monoesters of dicarboxylic acids and alkoxylated alcohols, as described in EP-A-337 239. Here, the nonesterified carboxyl group is converted completely into the form of the alkaline earth metal salt.
Partially neutralized Ca salts of succinic acid half-esters substituted by C
8
-C
30
-alkyl radicals (EP-A-657 410); alkali metal and alkaline earth metal compounds from the group of the hydroxides, oxides and alkoxides (EP-A-0 335 295); Ca/Al-containing and Ca/Ti-containing catalyst systems (U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,046).
Particularly suitable alkoxylation catalysts are partially neutralized alkaline earth metal salts of dicar
Clariant GmbH
Ogden Necholus
Silverman Richard P.
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