Blue colored liquid crystal compositions

Details Blue colored liquid crystal compositions Blue colored liquid crystal compositions

2002-04-17

2002-11-05

Ogden, Necholus (Department: 1751)

Cleaning compositions for solid surfaces, auxiliary compositions

Cleaning compositions or processes of preparing

Liquid composition

C510S423000, C510S424000, C510S425000, C510S428000, C510S507000, C510S509000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06475975

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a blue colored liquid crystal detergent composition. More specifically, it is of a blue colored liquid detergent composition in a liquid crystal state which when brought into contact with tough difficult to clean soils is superior to other liquid detergent compositions in detergency and in other physical properties as well as provides a sharp contrast to the surface being cleaned thereby making it easier to see the endpoint when rinsing the product from the surface being cleaned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Liquid aqueous synthetic organic detergent compositions have long been employed for human hair shampoos and as dishwashing detergents for hand washing of dishes (as distinguished from automatic dishwashing machine washing of dishes). Liquid detergent compositions have also been employed as hard surface cleaners, as in pine oil liquids, for cleaning floors and walls. More recently they have proven successful as laundry detergents too, apparently because they are convenient to use, are instantly soluble in wash water, and may be employed in “pre-spotting” applications to facilitate removal of soils and stains from laundry upon subsequent washing. Liquid detergent compositions have comprised anionic, cationic and nonionic surface active agents, builders and adjuvants, including, as adjuvants, lipophilic materials which can act as solvents for lipophilic soils and stains. The various liquid aqueous synthetic organic detergent compositions mentioned serve to emulsify lipophilic materials, including oily soils, in aqueous media, such as wash water, by forming micellar dispersions and emulsions. They also serve to disperse and suspend particulate soils.
Although emulsification is a mechanism of soil removal, it has been only comparatively recently that it was discovered how to make microemulsions which are much more effective than ordinary emulsions in removing lipophilic materials from substrates. Such microemulsions are described in British Patent Specification No. 2,190,681 and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,075,026; 5,076,954 and 5,082,584 and 5,108,643, most of which relate to acidic microemulsions useful for cleaning hard surfaced items, such as bathtubs and sinks which microemulsions are especially effective in removing soap scum and lime scale from them. However, as in Ser. No. 4,919,839 the microemulsions may be essentially neutral and such are also taught to be effective for microemulsifying lipophilic soils from substrates. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 7/313,664 there is described a light duty microemulsion liquid detergent composition which is useful for washing dishes and removing greasy deposits from them in both neat and diluted forms. Such compositions include complexes of anionic and cationic detergents as surface active components of the microemulsions.
The various microemulsions referred to include a lipophile, which may be a hydrocarbon, a surfactant, which may be an anionic and/or a nonionic detergent(s), a co-surfactant, which may be a poly-lower alkylene glycol lower alkyl ether, e.g., tripropylene glycol monomethyl ether, and water.
Although the manufacture and use of detergent compositions in microemulsion form significantly improve cleaning power and greasy soil removal, compared to the usual emulsions, the present invention improves them still further and also increases the capacity of the detergent compositions to adhere to surfaces to which they have been applied. Thus, they drop or run substantially less than cleaning compositions of “similar” cleaning power which are in microemulsion or normal liquid detergent form. Also, because they form microemulsions with lipophilic soil or stain material spontaneously, with essentially no requirement for addition of any energy, either thermal or mechanical, they are more effective cleaners at room temperature and at higher and lower temperatures that are normally employed in cleaning operations than are ordinary liquid detergents, and are also more effective than detergent compositions in microemulsion form.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,826 teaches liquid crystal compositions but these compositions exhibit thermal stability in the limited temperature range of 19° C. to 36° C.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved, blue colored liquid crystal detergent composition having lower interfacial tension which improves cleaning hard surface in the form of a liquid crystal which is suitable for cleaning hard surfaces such as plastic, vitreous and metal surfaces having a shiny finish, oil stained floors, automotive engines and other engines. More particularly, the improved cleaning compositions exhibit good grease soil removal properties due to the lower interfacial tension and suspended abrasives. These new compositions leave the cleaned surfaces shiny without the need of or requiring only minimal scrubbing without additional rinsing or wiping. The latter characteristic is evidenced by little or no visible residues on the unrinsed cleaned surfaces and, accordingly, overcomes one of the disadvantages of prior art products.
The blue color of the liquid crystal detergent composition has a sharp contrast with the target surface being cleaned. Therefore, it is easier to see the end point when rinsing the liquid crystal detergent composition from the surface being cleaned.
Surprisingly, these desirable results are accomplished even in the absence of polyphosphate or other inorganic or organic detergent builder salts and also in the complete absence or substantially complete absence of grease-removal solvent.
In one aspect, the invention generally provides a stable, liquid crystal, cleaning composition especially effective in the removal of oily and stuck-on food from dishware. The blue colored liquid crystal composition includes, on a weight basis:
(a) 0.5% to 6% of an ethoxylated alkyl ether surfactant;
(b) 10% to 24% of a sodium salt of a C
8
-C
16
linear alkyl benzene sulfonate surfactant;
(c) 1% to 10% of at least one ethoxylated nonionic surfactant;
(d) 0.5% to 6%, more preferably 0.5% to 5% of a magnesium, sodium, calcium or potassium salt such as magnesium sulfate heptahydrate and/or magnesium chloride.
(e) 10% to 22% of an abrasive such as a calcium carbonate; and
(f) 0.005% to 0.1%, more preferably 0.01% to 0.06% of a blue colorant; and
(g) the balance being water, wherein the composition does not contain a zwitterionic surfactant or a cosurfactant such as glycerol, ethylene glycol, water-soluble polyethylene glycols having a molecular weight of 300 to 1000, polypropylene glycol of the formula HO(CH
3
CHCH
2
O)
n
H wherein n is a number from 2 to 18, mixtures of polyethylene glycol and polypropyl glycol (Synalox) and mono C
1
-C
6
alkyl ethers and esters of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol having the structural formulas R(X)
n
OH and R
1
(X)
n
OH wherein R is C
1
-C
6
alkyl group, R
1
is C
2
-C
4
acyl group, X is (OCH
2
CH
2
) or (OCH
2
(CH
3
)CH) and n is a number from 1 to 4, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, an alkyl lactate, wherein the alkyl group has 1 to 6 carbon atoms, 1methoxy-2-propanol, 1methoxy-3-propanol, and 1methoxy 2-, 3- or 4-butanol and the liquid crystal composition has a storage modulus equal to or higher than one Pascal (1 Newton/sq. m.), more preferably higher than 30 Pascal at a temperature of 20° C. to 40° C. at a strain of 0.1% to 5% and a frequency of 10 radians/second as measured on a Carri-Med CSL
2
500 Rheometer and is thermally stable and exists as a liquid crystal in the temperature range from 8° C. to 43° C., more preferably 4° C. to 43° C.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a stable blue colored liquid crystal detergent composition comprising approximately by weight: 0.5% to 6% of an ethoxylated C
8
-C
18
alkyl ether sulfate, 1% to 10% of an ethoxylated nonionic surfactant, 10% to 24% of a sodium salt of a C
8
-C
16
linear alkyl benzene sulfonate surfactant, 0.5% to 6%, more preferably 0.5% to 5% of a magnesium, sodium, calcium or potassium salt, 10% to 22% of an abras

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