Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces – auxiliary compositions – Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing – For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-12
2004-06-29
Delcotto, Gregory (Department: 1751)
Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions
Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing
For cleaning a specific substrate or removing a specific...
C510S474000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06756349
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to stain removal and stain treatment.
BACKGROUND
Products containing iodine or iodophors (complexes of iodine with a suitable carrier) are widely used in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other health care facilities. These products can quickly reduce microbial populations on skin, gums, and other tissues or surfaces. Unfortunately, when iodine- or iodophor-containing products are spilled or otherwise unintentionally contact surfaces such as tile floors, they can cause semi-permanent dark yellow or brown stains. These stains can be very difficult to remove using traditional cleaning and laundering techniques, and are especially difficult to remove from floor tiles. For example, when iodophors formed from a complex of iodine and polyvinylpyrrolidonc are spilled on vinyl composite tiles coated with a typical floor finish, both the finish and tiles may stain. Removal of such stains may require recoating the floor or even replacing the stained tiles. This can require substantial time and expenditure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,604 describes a germicide-resistant floor polish. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,569, 5,522,580, 5,669,937, 6,309,471 describe various cleaners for iodine or iodophor stains. Iodine or iodophor stains can also be removed by scrubbing the stain with a paste or solution of sodium thiosulfate.
Iodine and iodophor stains indicate that spillage or other mistakes may have taken place, are highly visible, and may remind viewers of blood or other bodily fluids. Accordingly, such stains are very undesirable in a health care facility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides, in one aspect, a method for reducing the visual impact of an iodine or iodophor stain comprising applying to the stain sufficient starch to impart a bluer coloration to and thereby mask the stain. The masked stain can be left as is until further cleaning or other surface repair or replacement can take place. The masked stain may instead or also be subjected to the action of a suitable decolorizing agent.
In another aspect, the invention provides a surface cleaning composition comprising detergent, starch and a reducing agent having a redox potential sufficient to decolorize an iodine or iodophor stain.
In yet another aspect, the invention provides a floor optionally bearing a floor finish coating, an iodine or iodophor stain on the floor or floor finish coating, and a further coating containing sufficient starch to impart a bluer coloration to the stain.
The invention can minimize the visual impact of an iodine or iodophor stain until the stain can be removed or decolorized. The starch reacts with triiodide anion in the stain to change the stain coloration from a yellowish hue (e.g., yellow-white, yellow or brown) towards a bluer hue (e.g., white, blue-white, blue or even dark blue). The shift in stain coloration is perceived by the human eye as making the stained surface cleaner in somewhat the same way the human eye perceives fabric treated with a fabric bluing agent as being cleaner.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In this application, iodine and iodophor will (unless the context requires otherwise) collectively be referred to as “iodine”.
In this application, a change in stain coloration from a yellowish hue towards a bluer hue will be referred to as “masking”. For a normal viewer, the thus-masked stain typically will be much less objectionable than the original stain. This will be so even if the masking reaction makes the stain dark blue, because the shift to a bluer coloration will also be perceived as making the stained surface cleaner.
The invention can be used to mask stains caused by a wide variety of iodine-containing products. Typical iodine-containing products include tincture of iodine and Lugol's solution. The invention has particular utility for masking stains caused by iodophor-containing products. Iodophors are complexes of iodine with polymers such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone or polyethylene glycol, or complexes of iodine with a suitable surfactant. Iodine complexes with polyvinylpyrrolidone are especially widely-used and are generally known as povidone-iodine. Suitable commercially available povidone-iodine products include ALPHADINE™ solution, ointment, powder and scrub foam (all commercially available from Ecolab Inc.) and BETADINE™ antibiotics and microbicides (all commercially available from Purdue Pharma LP).
The invention can also be used to mask other problematic reducible stains that may be encountered, particularly those arising from the use of colored dyes in laboratories and certain food soils in cafeterias.
Starch for use in the invention can be obtained from a variety of sources such as rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, and the like. Depending in part on factors such as the molecular weight of the starch from such source and upon the desired degree of solubility, the starch can be used as is or hydrolyzed or emulsified as desired. Preferably the starch is hydrolyzed. Hydrolysis can be conveniently be accomplished by cooking the starch under appropriate conditions, using for example a pressure vessel and temperatures of about 100 to about 130° C. Starch can also be hydrolyzed using other techniques that will be familiar to those skilled in the art, for example by using a suitable enzyme.
In one aspect of the invention, starch is applied to an iodine stain in the form of a solution or suspension in a suitable solvent (e.g., water), without other active ingredients. This permits masking of the stain until such time as permanent stain removal or repair of the stained surface can be carried out. Such removal or replacement may take place hours later (e.g., four hours later or longer if desired), at a suitably convenient time such as after the close of a business or after departure of patients or other personnel.
In another aspect of the invention, starch is applied to an iodine stain in the presence of a reducing agent having a redox potential sufficient to decolorize an iodine or iodophor stain. This masks the stain while is being decolorized. Preferred redox potentials for the reducing agent range from +0.558 to −4.00 volts for the oxidative half-reaction at 25° C., using redox potentials such as those shown in, e.g.,
Lange's Handbook of Chemistry
, 12th edition, pages 6-2 through 6-21, McGraw Hill (1979). Particularly preferred reducing agents include sulfites, hydrosulfites, nitrites, hydronitrites, phosphites and hydrophosphites, with sulfites being most preferred. A preferred amount of reducing agent is about 1 to about 10 weight percent of the solution or suspension, more preferably about 1 to about 4 weight percent and most preferably about 1 to about 3 weight percent.
The starch can also be applied to a surface that already contains a reducing agent that can decolorize the stain, as described in copending application Ser. No. 10/293,798 entitled STAIN RESISTANT COATING COMPOSITION, filed even date herewith and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In a preferred aspect of this copending application, a floor finish or sealer containing a reducing agent that can decolorize iodine stains is applied to a floor as one or more floor finish coats. While such a finish or sealer can provide an effective level of eventual stain control or elimination, a certain amount of time is required for decolorization to take place. The present invention can mask the stain during such decolorization.
In yet another aspect of the invention, starch is combined with a coating composition (e.g., a floor finish or other curable or hardenable film-forming composition) and then applied to a surface. The resulting coated surface can mask stains caused by iodine-containing products without application of a separate starch-containing composition to the stain. In a preferred embodiment, the coating composition also contains a reducing agent such as is described above. Starch and reducing agent can be added to such coating compositions at a variety of addition levels. For floor finish concentrates, starch preferably represents 1 to about
DeFields Scott I.
Peters Sara B.
Smith Kim R.
Delcotto Gregory
Ecolab Inc.
IPLM Group, P.A.
Petruncio John M
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