Compositions – Textile processing aid compositions – or processes of preparing – For textile materials consisting wholly or in part of silk...
Patent
1994-04-29
1995-04-18
Lieberman, Paul
Compositions
Textile processing aid compositions, or processes of preparing
For textile materials consisting wholly or in part of silk...
252 86, 252 89, 252547, D06M 1346
Patent
active
054075890
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a fabric softening material and to a metzhod for its preparation. In particular the invention relates to a fabric softening composition for use in the rinse step of a fabric washing process.
Conventional rinse added fabric softening compositions contain fabric softening materials which are substantially water-insoluble cationic materials usually having two long alkyl chains. Typical of such materials are disteary dimethyl ammonium chloride. These materials are usually prepared in the form of.an aqueous dispersion or emulsion.
It has been proposed in EP 239 910 (PROCTER & GAMBLE) to incorporate ester linked quaternary ammonium compounds in fabric softening compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,867 (STEPAN) discloses the use of N-methyl, N,N-di(beta-C.sub.14-18 acyloxyethyl) N-beta-hydroxy ethyl ammonium methosulphate in softening compositions. Other ester linked softener materials are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,180 (LEVER BROTHERS). Softener materials comprising ester linkages are especially preferred for use in fabric conditioning compositions for environmental reasons.
A problem with quaternary softener materials comprising ester linkages is that some tend to have a relatively high pour point. Pour point can be defined as the lowest temperature at which a material can be observed to flow under specified conditions. (As explained in The Analysis of Fats and Oils by V C Mehlenbacher, The Garrard Press, Champaign, Ill. 1960). A high pour point renders the softener materials sometimes difficult to process. For example, the softener materials as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,180 (LEVER BROTHERS) have high pour points meaning that they are hardly pumpable at temperatures conventionally used in rinse conditioner manufacture, eg. 60.degree. C., and are difficult to disperse in water.
We have now found that the pour point of ester-linked softening materials can be lowered by using a higher proportion of unsaturated substituents in each molecule 10 compared with that normally used. The man skilled in the art would expect a decrease in softening performance from such materials since this phenomenon is seen with conventional quaternaries having two long alkyl chains. Surprisingly we have found that ester-linked quaternary ammonium compounds or their corresponding amines comprising a high proportion of unsaturated substituents in the molecule or mixture of molecules having unsaturated substituents with molecules having saturated substituents can give superior softening when compared to the softening performance obtained from saturated ester-linked quaternaries or their corresponding amines or non-ester-linked quaternaries.
In EP 0 052 517 (PROCTER & GAMBLE) it is disclosed that pourable, concentrated fabric softener compositions can be obtained when the composition comprises a mixture of a mono nitrogen quaternary ammonium salt, a di(2-amidoethyl) methyl quaternary ammonium salt and an imidazolinium salt where the cationic system has an Iodine value of at least 4.2. In this prior art specification the `pourability` is defined in terms of the finished composition and not the component parts. No mention of ester-linked quaternaries or improved softening performance is made.
In JP 2169769A KAO CORP it is disclosed that softening and finishing agents for treating garments can comprise certain quaternary ammonium compounds with substituents having certain degrees of unsaturation.
Accordingly the present invention provides a fabric softening material comprising an ester-linked amine compound and/or its corresponding quaternary ammonium compound. The amine compound has a of general formula I ##STR2## where each R.sub.1 group is independently selected from C.sub.1-4 alkyl, alkenyl or hydroxyalkyl groups; and each R.sub.2 group is independently selected from C.sub.8-28 alkyl or alkenyl groups, n is an integer from 0 to 5 and m is an integer from 1 to 5; such that the material has an Iodine value of between 5 and 24.
The quaternary ammonium compound corresponding to the ester-linked amine compound
REFERENCES:
patent: 4137180 (1979-01-01), Naik et al.
patent: 5288417 (1994-02-01), Bauer et al.
Huffman A. Kate
Lever Brothers Company Division of Conopco, Inc.
Lieberman Paul
Tierney Michael P.
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