Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series – Organic compounds – Oxygen containing
Patent
1997-03-07
1998-09-22
Geist, Gary
Organic compounds -- part of the class 532-570 series
Organic compounds
Oxygen containing
568620, 568613, 426329, 435243, C07C 4116
Patent
active
058115943
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This is the U.S. National Stage Application of PCT/EP95/03359 filed Aug. 24, 1995, now WO96/06905 published Mar. 7, 1996.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methyl-end-capped alkyl and/or alkenyl polyglycol ethers, to a process for their production by methylation of products of the addition of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide to primary alcohols, to formulations containing these substances and to the use of the substances for the production of surface-active formulations.
2. Prior Art
In a number of industrial processes, the presence of foam is extremely undesirable. For example, both in the machine washing of beer or milk bottles and in the spray cleaning of automobile panels, not only is the cleaning or degreasing effect of the surface-active formulations used an important factor, the avoidance of foam which can seriously interfere with plant functions is of equal significance--all the more so inasmuch as highly active and also high-foaming anionic surfactants are used in many cases.
The problem of controlling foam has been known for some time and, accordingly, a number of more or less convincing solutions to the problem are known from the prior art and may be divided into two groups: defoamers which, in many instances, are paraffinic hydrocarbons or silicone compounds. For the described applications, however, this is undesirable in most cases. The second group of processes involve the use of surface-active formulations which are themselves low-foaming and, in addition, may also exhibit defoaming properties. In general, these surface-active formulations are nonionic surfactants or surfactant-like systems such as, for example, fatty alcohol propylene glycol ethers or block polymers of ethylene and propylene glycol which, unfortunately, do not have sufficient biological degradability. are described for example by R. Piorr in Fat Sci. Technol.. 89, 106 (1987), have established themselves in the market as particularly effective low-foaming surfactants. These products are generally butyl-end-capped nonionic surfactants which are known, for example, from EP-A 0 124 815, EP-B 0 303 928, EP-B 0 324 340, EP-A 0 420 802, DE-A 39 28 600 and DE-C 42 43 643.
Methyl-end-capped methyl mixed ethers occupy a special position. They are normally prepared by reaction of the corresponding fatty alcohol
Thus, the use inter alia of methyl-end-terminated mixed ethers for machine bottle washing is known, for example, from EP-A 0 161 537 (BASF). The same substances are proposed as defoamers for the sugar and yeast industry in EP-B 0 180 081 (BASF). Finally, EP-B 0 202 638 (BASF) relates to liquid surfactant concentrates for highly alkaline cleaning compositions containing methyl mixed ethers, alkyl polyglucosides, adducts of maleic anhydride with unsaturated fatty acids and branched fatty acids.
The hitherto known methyl mixed ethers have always been distinctly inferior to the widely used butyl mixed ethers in regard to foaming power and, in particular, defoaming behavior. However, in view of the limited availability of butyl chloride as a suitable reagent for the C.sub.4 end capping of alkyl polyglycol ethers, there has been a considerable increase in recent years in market demand for methyl mixed ethers with improved performance properties which are both simple and inexpensive to produce.
Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention was to provide new methyl-end-capped alkyl polyglycol ethers which would be free from the disadvantages mentioned above and which would be at least equivalent to butyl-end-capped commercial products in regard to foam, defoaming, cleaning performance and biodegradability.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to methyl-end-capped alkyl and/or alkenyl polyglycol ethers corresponding to formula (I): ##STR1## in which R.sup.1 is a linear or branched alkyl and/or alkenyl group containing 6 to 22 carbon atoms, n is a number of 4 to 15 and m is a number of 1 to 10.
It has surprisingly been found that methyl mixed ethers
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Bigorra Llosas Joaquim
Schmid Karl
Geist Gary
Henkel Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien
Jaeschke Wayne C.
Millson Jr. Henry E.
Padmanabhan Sreenivas
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