Dryer-activated fabric conditioning and antistatic...

Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – With oxygen – halogen – sulfur – or nitrogen containing or...

Reexamination Certificate

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C510S519000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06277796

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an improvement in dryer activated, e.g., dryer-added, softening products, compositions, and/or the process of making these compositions containing acetal pro-fragrance compounds and methods for accomplishing the delivery of such organic pro-fragrance compounds to textile articles and other surfaces dried with said compositions. These products and/or compositions are either in particulate form, compounded with other materials in solid form, e.g., tablets, pellets, agglomerates, etc., or preferably attached to a substrate. The fragrance is released in fragrance-active form when the dried surface is subsequently contacted with a lower pH environment such as contact with water, carbon dioxide gas, humid air, or the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Consumer acceptance of laundry products is determined not only by the performance achieved with these products but the aesthetics associated therewith. The perfume systems are therefore an important aspect of the successful formulation of such commercial products.
What perfume system to use for a given product is a matter of careful consideration by skilled perfumers. While a wide array of chemicals and ingredients are available to perfumers, considerations such as availability, cost, and compatibility with other components in the compositions limit the practical options. Thus, there continues to be a need for efficient, low-cost, compatible perfume materials useful for laundry compositions.
Furthermore, due to the high energy input and large air flow in the drying process used in the typical automatic laundry dryers, a large part of most perfumes provided by fabric softener products is lost from the dryer vent. Perfume can be lost even when the fabrics are line dried. The amount of perfume carry-over from a laundry process onto fabrics is often marginal and does not last long on the fabric. Fragrance materials are often very costly and inefficient use in rinse added and dryer added fabric softener compositions very costly and inefficient use in rinse added and dryer added fabric softener compositions and ineffective delivery to fabrics results in a very high cost to both consumers and fabric softener manufacturers. Industry, therefore, continues to look for more efficient and effective fragrance delivery in fabric softener products, especially for improvement in the provision of long-lasting fragrance to the dried fabrics.
It has now been discovered that pro-perfume acetals provide efficient and effective fragrance delivery when incorporated into a dryer added fabric softener matrix. It has also been discovered that fabric softener compositions containing these acetals can effectively be incorporated into articles of manufacture that provide an effective and efficient means for consumers to obtain a prolonged positive scent signal on laundered textiles.
BACKGROUND ART
Acetals have long been known in perfumery. See Steffen Arctander, “Perfume and Flavor Chemicals”, Arctander, N.J., 1969. The majority of these are methyl and ethyl types, and molecular weights may range widely. See, for example, Arctander abstract numbers 6, 11, 210, 651, 689, 1697, 1702, 2480, 2478. For 2478, which is phenylacetaldehyde dicitronellyl acetal, molecular weight 414.7, Arctander reports “. . . and it is not exaggerated to say that this acetal is practically abandoned and obsolete in today's perfumery”. For 2480, which is phenylacetaldehyde digeranyl acetal, Arctander reports “the title material does not offer substantial advantages or unique odor type and it may be considered of little more than academic interest today”. This latter material was still commercially available in 1992 as ROSETAL A (Catalogue, IFF). Acetals are also frequently used in chemical synthesis as protecting groups for alcohols and aldehydes in basic pH systems. See, for example, March, Advanced Organic Chemistry, 3rd Ed., pp. 329-332 (Wiley, N.Y., 1985). When used as a protecting group, subsequent treatment of an acetal under acidic conditions liberates the parent alcohol and aldehyde.
Carrier mechanisms for perfume delivery, such as by encapsulation, have been taught in the prior art. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,753.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,468, Suffis et al, issued Jan. 3, 1995 describes specific types of personal care compositions, such as deodorant sticks, comprising assertedly “body-activated” fragrances. The term apparently refers to the previously known tendency of materials such as acetals derived from fragrance alcohols to hydrolyze under acidic pH conditions thereby releasing fragrance. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,932,520, Hoffman, issued Jan. 13, 1976.
Factors affecting substantivity of fragrance materials on fabrics are discussed in Estcher et al. JAOCS 71 p. 31-40 (1994).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to dryer-activated fabric softening compositions and articles having improved biodegradability, softness, perfume delivery from sheet substrates (lower m.p. range), and/or antistatic effects, for use in an automatic clothes dryer. These compositions and/or articles comprise, as essential ingredients:
(A) from about 0.01% to about 15%, by weight of the composition, preferably from about 0.1% to about 10%, more preferably from about 0.25% to about 5%, of pro-fragrant acetal, said acetal having the formula:
wherein R′ and the H are derived from parent aldehyde having a chain length of C
8
or greater and wherein L and M are alkoxy moieties derived from parent alcohols having a chain length Of C
6
or greater, and wherein at least one of the parent aldehyde, or alcohols of said pro-fragrant acetal is a fragrance compound;
(B) from about 10% to about 99.99%, preferably from about 15% to about 90%, more preferably from about 30% to about 85%, and even more preferably from about 30% to about 55%, of fabric softening compound, preferably quaternary ammonium compound, more preferably biodegradable, and even more preferably, selected from the group consisting of the compounds of Formulas I, II, III, IV, and mixtures thereof, as described hereinafter; and
wherein these compositions optionally contain ingredients, as described hereinafter, selected from the group consisting of:
(C) (1) co-softeners which are a carboxylic acid salt of a tertiary amine and/or ester amine;
(2) nonionic softeners;
(3) soil release agents;
(4) cyclodextrin/perfume complexes and free perfume;
(5) stabilizers; and
(6) other minor ingredients conventionally used in textile treatment compositions.
The active fabric softening components preferably contain unsaturation to provide improved antistatic benefits. The Iodine Value of the composition is preferably from about 3 to about 60, more preferably from about 8 to about 50, and even more preferably from about 12 to about 40. The Iodine Value of the composition represents the Iodine Value of the total fatty acyl groups present in components (B), (C)(1), and (C)(2) described below. The unsaturation may be present in one or more of the active components of (B), (C)(1), and/or (C)(2).
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The compositions of the present invention comprise two essential elements, pro-fragrant acetal ingredients, and ingredients useful for formulating dryer added fabric softening compositions. The invention can also contain conventional ingredients found in dryer added fabric softener compositions.
A. Pro-fragrant Acetal Ingredients
Acetals suitable in the present invention have the following structure:
Such acetals can be used to deliver fragrance aldehydes, fragrance alcohols, or both. R′ and the H are derived from a starting aldehyde. The parent aldehyde is a fragrant aldehyde when no alcohol parent is fragrant, or can be a fragrant or non-fragrant aldehyde when a fragrant alcohol has been incorporated into the acetal structure. Preferred acetals include those in which R′ comprises a C
8
or larger alkyl, alkenyl, or aryl moiety. In addition, the non-fragrant aldehyde can contain one or more aldehyde functional groups for derivatization, in

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