Gemini surfactants in cleaning compositions

Details Gemini surfactants in cleaning compositions Gemini surfactants in cleaning compositions

2002-05-03

2003-12-23

Mruk, Brian P. (Department: 1751)

Cleaning and liquid contact with solids

Processes

Work handled in bulk or groups

C134S025300, C134S039000, C134S040000, C134S042000, C510S220000, C510S356000, C510S360000, C510S413000, C510S421000, C510S470000, C510S475000, C510S505000, C510S506000, C510S521000, C510S524000, C510S535000, C568S613000, C568S622000, C523S400000, C523S406000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06666217

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to gemini surfactants, optionally in combination with ingredients customary in rinse aids, optionally with further nonionic surfactants and anionic surfactants, and to the use of the gemini surfactants for improving the wetting behavior in rinse aids.
Compositions for the washing and cleaning of hard nontextile surfaces which are intended for the household and industrial sector, which mostly develop, upon use, a small volume of foam which further decreases significantly within a few minutes. Compositions of this type have been known for a long time and are established in the market. These are essentially aqueous surfactant solutions of varying type with or without the addition of builders, solubility promoters (hydrotropic agents) or solvents. However, to demonstrate the effectiveness, a certain foaming of the application solution at the start of the cleaning operation is desired by the consumer, although the foam should rapidly collapse so that surfaces which have been cleaned once do not have to be wiped again. For this purpose, low-foaming nonionic surfactants are usually added to compositions of said type.
Nowadays, higher requirements are placed on dishes washed by machine than on dishes washed manually. For example, an item of tableware which has been completely cleaned of food residues is not assessed as perfect if, after the machine dishwashing, it still has whitish marks based on water hardness or other mineral salts which, for a lack of wetting agents, originate from dried-up water drops.
In order to obtain gleaming and spotless tableware, a rinse aid is therefore used. The addition of a liquid or solid rinse aid, which may be added separately or is already in ready-to-use presentation form with the detergent and/or regenerating salt (“2 in 1”, “3 in 1”, e.g. in the form of tabs and powders), ensures that the water runs off as completely as possible from the ware, so that the various surfaces are residue-free and gleaming at the end of the wash program.
Commercially available rinse aids are mixtures of, for example, nonionic surfactants, solubility promoters, organic acids and solvents, water and optionally preservatives and fragrances. The aim of the surfactants in these compositions is to influence the interfacial tension of the water so that it can run off from the wear in the thinnest possible coherent film so that, during the subsequent drying operation, no water drops, streaks or films remain (wetting action).
For this reason, surfactants in rinse aids must also suppress the foam which arises as a result of food residues in the dishwashing machine. Since most rinse aids comprise acids to improve the clear drying effect, the surfactants used must additionally be relatively hydrolysis-insensitive toward acids.
Rinse aids are used both domestically and in industrial sectors. In domestic dishwashers the rinse aid is mostly metered in after the prerinse and washing cycle at just under 40° C.-65° C. Industrial dishwashing machines operate with only one wash liquor which is only replaced by the addition of the rinse aid solution from the previous wash cycle. There is thus no complete water change during the entire wash program. For this reason, the rinse aid must also have a foam-suppressing action, be thermally stable at a sharp temperature gradient of 85-35° C. and, in addition, must be sufficiently stable toward alkali and active chlorine.
An object of the present invention was to provide rinse aids which simultaneously exhibit good foaming behavior and cleaning behavior, but in particular very good run-off behavior, i.e. an improvement in the wetting behavior on plastic surfaces.
The object was achieved by using selected gemini surfactants.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides gemini surfactants of the formula (I)
R—CHOH—CH
2
O—[OCH
2
CH
2
]x—O—CH
2—
CHOH—R  (I)
in which R is a linear or branched alkyl and/or alkenyl radical having 4 to 22, preferably 8 to 18, in particular 8 to 12 carbon atoms and x is 5 to 90, preferably 10 to 45 and in particular 12 to 35.
Gemini Surfactants
Generally, gemini surfactants are prepared by reacting 1,2-epoxyalkanes (CH
2
CHO—R), where R is a linear or branched, saturated or unsaturated alkyl and/or alkenyl radical, with polyols.
Polyol is used here as the collective term for polyhydric alcohols or polyalkylene glycols, i.e. as an organic compound which contains at least two hydroxyl groups in the molecule. Polyalkylene glycols are also to be understood as meaning reaction products of polyhydric alcohols with alkoxylation reagents such as ethylene oxide and propylene oxide.
For the purposes of the invention, polyethylene glycol HO—[OCH
2
CH
2
]x—OH is used as polyol.
Particular preference is given to gemini surfactants of the formula (I) where x is 10 to 45, preferably 12 to 35.
Very particular preference is given to gemini surfactants of the formula (I) where R is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 8 to 12 carbon atoms. Preference is also given to gemini surfactants of the formula (I) where R is a linear alkyl radical having 8 to 12 carbon atoms, in particular having 10 carbon atoms.
In a further embodiment, preference is given to gemini surfactants of the formula (I) which are characterized in that they comprise at least 80% by weight, preferably 85 to 100% by weight, in particular 95 to 100% by weight, of gemini surfactants in which all the free hydroxyl groups of the polyethylene glycol are capped with 1,2-epoxyalkane units.
In addition, in a further embodiment, rinse aids are claimed which comprise the gemini surfactants according to the invention and further ingredients customary in rinse aids. These customary ingredients can, as described below, be alkyl and/or alkenyl oligoglycosides, further nonionic surfactants, anionic surfactants and further auxiliaries and additives. Very particular preference is given here to rinse aids which comprise gemini surfactants of the formula (I) in which x is 5 to 90, preferably 10 to 45, in particular 12 to 35 and R is a linear or branched alkyl and/or alkenyl radical having 4 to 22 carbon atoms.
Alkyl and/or Alkenyl Oligoglycosides
In a further embodiment, the rinse aids according to the invention comprise alkyl and/or alkenyl oligoglycosides of the formula (II).
 R
1
O—[G]
p
  (II),
where R
1
is an alkyl and/or alkenyl radical having 4 to 22 carbon atoms, G is a sugar radical having 5 or 6 carbon atoms and p is a number from 1 to 10.
They can be obtained by the appropriate methods of preparative organic chemistry. The alkyl and/or alkenyl oligoglycosides can be derived from aldoses or ketoses having 5 or 6 carbon atoms, preferably glucose. The preferred alkyl and/or alkenyl oligoglycosides are thus alkyl and/or alkenyl oligoglucosides.
The alkyl radical R
1
can be derived from primary saturated alcohols. Typical examples are butanol-1, caproic, enanthic, caprylic, pelargonic, capric alcohol, undecanol-1, lauryl alcohol, tridecanol-1, myristyl alcohol, pentadecanol-1, cetyl alcohol, palmityl alcohol, heptadecanol-1, stearyl alcohol, isostearyl alcohol, nonadecanol-1, arachidyl alcohol, heneicosanol-1, and behenyl alcohol, and technical-grade mixtures thereof, as are obtained, for example, in the hydrogenation of technical-grade fatty acid methyl esters or in the course of the hydrogenation of aldehydes from the Roelen oxo synthesis.
The alkenyl radical R
1
can be derived from primary unsaturated alcohols. Typical examples of unsaturated alcohols are undecen-1-ol, oleyl alcohol, elaidyl alcohol, ricinol alcohol, linoleyl alcohol, linolenyl alcohol, gadoleyl alcohol, arachidonyl alcohol, eurucyl alcohol, brassidyl alcohol, palmoleyl alcohol, petroselinyl alcohol, arachyl alcohol, and technical-grade mixtures thereof which can be obtained as described above.
Preference is given to alkyl or alkenyl radical R
1
derived from primary alcohols having 6 to 16 carbon atoms.
Alkyl oligoglucosides of chain length C
8
-C
10
which form as forerunnings in the fractional dis

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