Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~ FA6RIC SOFTENING COMPOSITION. I
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The presen~ invention relates to improved, highly efficac;ous, fabric
softening compositions utilizing on the one hand a cationic fabric softening
compound or mixture o~ such compounds and on the other hand a higher alkyl
sulfonate which by itself does not provide any softening effect to the laundry
materials, and process for making and using such compositions. The unique
and synergistic effect of the combination of cationic and paraffin sulfonate
permits ~he formulation of softening compositions of lower active ingredient
levels (A.I.~ ~han when using straight cation;c material to obtain comparable
softening effect. This permits wider latitude in preparing the compositions
as well as significant monetary savings.
BACKGROUND OF IN~ENTION.
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Empirically ;t has been determined that for a normal wash load (e.g.
8 to 10 lbs) in the usual washing machine utilizing about 35 liters of
water, about 30 to 60 grams of a 6% actiYe cationic conditioner results in
very acceptable softening. On a scale o~ 1 to 10 of softness rating, this
means a rating of about 9 to lO.
At 6 and above there is to the consumer a perceptib1e difference between
values of 69 7, 3, 9 and 10.
~5 Fro~ 1 to 5, the wash is totally unsatisfactory be;ng very harsh and ;'boardy"
in feel. ~t these levels the oonsumer generally cannot perce~ve any differences.,
Of course, the expert, with more experience and sophistication can discern
differences a~ong all these numerical ratings.
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The 6% act~ve cationic level has been the general industry-wide standard
since higher concentrations in aqueous systems are often difficult to formulateJthe stabiliky may be poor, pourability deficient, gel-Formation d serious
problem~ and dispersibility in the laundry water difficult leading to poor
softening and/or stainlng.
In U.S. patent 4 000 077 there are described improved fabric softPn;ng
compositions combining a cationic softener with a long chain aliphatic
alcohol sulfate (including ethoxylated alcohol sulfates~. It is clear in
this patent and it has been empirically established that lower levels of
total actives ~i.e. below 6 %) can give sof~ening equ;valent to 6% cationic
alone~
In U.S. patent 3 997 453 fabric softening compositions of improved cold
water dispersibility are obtained by the conjoint u5e of minor amounts of
specified anion;c sulfonates. Rat;os of oa~ionic to anionic of from 80:1
to 3:1, 50:1 to 4:1 and 40:1 to 5:1 are disclosed. Among the disclosed
sulfonates are the C8 to C20 paraffin sulfonates.
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OBJECTS OF INVENTION. I
Accordingly it ;s an object of this invention to provide a fabric softe- i
ning composit;on of excellent performance and wh;ch ;s econom;cal as well.
It is another object of this invention to provide caticnic fabric softeners
ut;lizing lower levels of active ingredient but which give soften;ng levels
comparable to compositions of cationic alone at higher level of actives.
It is still another object o~ this invention to provide a synergistic
fabric softening composition com~ining a cationic quaternary ammonium softener
with a long chain paraffin sulfonate.
A still further object o~ this invention is ~he provision of a process
Por making the new and unique fabric softening compositions described herein
.
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as well as the1r use in tre~t~ng (i.e. softening) tl~e laundry, particul~rly
in the rinse cycle of the usual auto~atic laundry washing machine.
Other objec-ts and advantages will appear and ~e readily app~ren~ from
! the description hereinafter.
DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION~
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¦ In accordance with the foregoing objec~s, a fabric softenin~ composition
is provided which compr;ses an aqueous dispersion of a cation;c ~abr~c softener
and a long-chain paraffln sul~ona~e in a weight ratio of from 5:1 to 12:1
(softener : sulfonate).
The cationic softeners useful herein are the conventional quaternary
ammonium fabric softeners and particularly ~he water dispersible di-longchain9
l di-shortchain quaternary ammonium salts and the 2-long-chain imidaz~linium
salts. Of particular preference are the di-C12 to C30 alkyl, di-C1 to C3
alkyl quaternary ammoni~m salts (e.g. chloride9 sulfate, methosulfate, acetate,
etc.) and the 2-C13 to C3~ alkylg 1,1-disubstituted im;dazolinium salts (anion
similarly as above).
Generally the foregoing compounds may be represented by the following
formulae for the imida~olinium softeners (A and AA) and quaternary salts (B)
Formula A :
_
. ~12C ---C1~2 ~
N N ~ R3 X
C R2 .
Rl ,
.
!l
9 ~3
Wh2rsin :
R1 is a C8 to C30 aliphat;c radical and pre~erably a C14 to C18 alkyl
or alk~nyl;
. R2 and R3 independently may be any of R1 or prefer~bly, lower alkyl
S or substi-tuted alkyl o~ C1 to C4 such as haloalkyl, hy~roxyalkyl, acylamino-
alky1 and the like;
X is a water-solubilizing anion such as chloride, bromide; iodide, fluoride,
sulfate9 methosulfate, nitrite9 nitrate, phosphate, and carboxylate, (e.g.
acetate3 adipate, phthalatej benzoate3 oleate, etc.);
The preferred compounds have the ~ormula (AA)
r~ ~
H2C _ CH2 0 ~
i 1 11 ,
N N --C2H4--N -- C ~ R5 X
15 11 ~ /
C R2 R~
;
R
~r~
_ __ .
Wherein :
Rl is as defined in F~rmula (A~;
R2 may be any of R~ or preferably lower alkyl or substituted alkyl of
C~ to C4 such as haloalkyl, hydroxyalkyl and the like,
R4 may be hydrogen or C1 ~ C4 alkyl or substituted alkyl,
R~ may be any of R1 and R29 preferably C8 to C33 aliphatic and more
preferably C~ to C18 alkyl or alkenyl; and
X is as de~ined in Formula (A)
~he quaternary ammonium compound has the general formula ~B)
-`, 11 I
11~3;~3S4
'
Y-
wherein the R groups are selected from C1 to C30 aliphatic, preferably
alkyl or alkenyl, aryl (e.g. phenul, tolyl~ cumyl, etc.); aralkyl (e.g.
benzyl, phenethyl~ etc.), and the halo, amide, hydroxyl, and oarboxy
substituents thereof, with the proviso that at least two R's are C14 to
C30 and preferably C14 to C22 and the others are lower alkyl and more
preferably at least two R's are C14 to C18 and the others are lower alkyl
of Cl to C4 (and most~preferably methyl or e~hyl) and Y is an anion as
defined for X in Formula (A).
Typical imidazolinium softeners include thi~ following within the above
formula (A)
2-heptadecyl-1-methyl-1-oleylamidoethyl imidazolinium ethosulfate
2-heptadecyl-1~methyl 1- (2-s~earoylamido)ethyl - imidazolinium sulfate,
2-heptadecyl-l-methyl~1- (2-stearoylamido)ethyl - imidazolinium chloride,
2-coco-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-benzyl imidazol;nium chloride9
2-coco-1-(hydroxyethyl)-1-(4-chlorobutyl)-imidazolinium chloride,
2-coco-1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-octadecenyl imidazolinium chloride,
2-tall oil fa~y~ 2-hyiiroxye~hyl~-1-benzyl i mi dazolinium chloride~
2-tall oil Fatty-1-(2 hydroxyethyl)-1~(4-chlorobutyl)-;midazolinium chloride
2-heptadecenyl~ -h~droxyethl)-1-(4-chlorobutyl )-imidaziolinium chloride
2-heptadecenyl-1-(2-hydroxyethyl31-benzyl imidazolinium chloride.
2-heptadeGyl-1-(hydroxyethyl) l-octadecyl im;dazolinium ethyl sulfate.
Typical cationics of ~ormul~ (B) include the following :
distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride
ditallow dimethyl ammonium chloride
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dihexadecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride
distearyl dimethyl ammonium brornide
di(hydrogenated tallow~ diemethyl ammonium bromide
distearyl, di~isopropyl) ammonium chloride
distearyl dimethyl ammonium methosulfate.
In a~dition to the cationic sof~ening componen~ of the present invention,
there may be also included in the aqu~ous oompos;~ions numerous conventional,
supplemental materials or optional componen~s which do not adversely affect
the stability and/or functional characteristics of the present ;nvention.
Thus, ~or example, there may be present minor amounts of various surfactant
materials and in particular certain surfactant phosphate esters which may
be desirable to effect an~i-static control of the laundered goods. Such
conven~ional additional components also include perfumes, dyes, pigments,
germic;des, optical brighteners~ anti-corrosion agents (sodium silicate)
and the like. Where used, each of ~hese may comprise e.g. 1% by weight of
the ;nstant compositions.
It may also be desirable to supplement and/or modify the viscosity
features of the compos;tion of this invention by the addition of electrolyte
material such as calcium chloride, sodium n;trate, sodium forlnate and the
like in amounts from about 0.05 to about 5% by weight. Minor proportions of
other components may also be included such as the lower alkanols, e.g. ethyl
and i50propyl alcohol as well as the conventional opacifiers part~sularly
of the resin emulsion types so well known in this art.
It is of course understood that most colnmercjal materials contain a
mixture of moîeties. Thus the lon~ chain subskituents on the cationics may not ¦only be a single carbon length chain but more probably a mixture. In this
regard a particularly useful quaternary salt wherein the alkyl substituents
are derived from tallow may contain a mixture about 35% C16 and 60~ C18
and minor amoun~s of C1~. Simil~rly the paraffin sulfona~e may be a single
chain length product bu~, again~ more generally a mixture, and pref2rably
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such a mixture could be a mixed C14 to C17 (e.g. 26% C14; 32% C15; 25% C16;
14% C17; 4% C13; 1.5% C1~ and 0.5% C12). Other m;xed alkyls can of course
be used but the preferred ones contain at least about 90% ;n the C14 to C17
range.
In yeneral, the aqueous compositions of this invent;on contain from 2%
¦ to 5% of the cation;c compound and from 0.~% to 1% of the paraffin sulfonate
w;th the ratio of cat;onic to sulfonate ranging from S:1 to 12:1. The pre-
! ferred compositions have a total act;ves content (;.e. cationic plus sulfonate)
¦ of from abou~ 4% ~o about 6% with from 4% to 5.5% mos~ preferred and a
1~ most preferred rat;o of cat;on;c to sulfonate of about 10:1
The preferred general process for making the compos;t;ons of th;s ;nven-
tion depends upon whether a batch or continuous techn;que is used. In a batch
process about 2/3 o~ the formula amount o~ water is heated to about 35-50C.
Separately the ca~ionic and paraff;n sulforate are combined to form a fluid
mixture (generally heating to 50-55C). The latter is then added to the
preheated water and mixed until a homogeneous mass is obtained. Thereafter
~he remaining water is added with mix;ng.
In a continuous prooess the premix of cationic and p~raffin sulfonate
(at 50-55C) is added to the total formula amount o~ water which has been
heated to about 70C.
The following examples will serve to illustrate the present invention
withou~ being deemed 7imitative thereof.
Parts, where given, are by weight, unless otherwise indicated.
i
EXAMPLE 1.
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A. A 40 x 40 cm cotton towel prewashed six times to remo~e all material which
may be in the towel is rinsed in tap water at room temperature and after
air-drying ls cut into 5 p;eces. Each piece is treated with 1.5 grams of an
aqueo composit;on containing 4X ~istearyl dimethyl ammoniu chloride(DSùMAC)
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3~
The softened towel pieces are evaluated through a paired comparison method
against the following composit;ons used also to treat towels as above
(B) 1,5 grams aqueous softener containin~ 3.75% DSDMAC and 0.14% C1~ 17
,l sodium paraffin sulfonate (SAS)
~C) 1.5 grams aqueous softener contain;ng 3.50%DSDMAC and 0~28~o SAS
(D) 1.5 grams aqueous softener contain;ng 3.25% DSDMAG and 0.43% SAS
The results of the evaluation indica~e ~hat (C) is the best wi~h (D)
next~ followed by (A) and then (B3. It should be noted that (C) and (D)
contain signif;cantly less cationic and even less total actives than (A)
(cation;c alone) and yet give be~ter softening. In the case of (B) the
amount of SAS is too low to give the synergistic effects shown by (C) and
(D) which are examples of the present ;nvent;on.
Further examples of aqueous compositions of this invent;on are as
~ollows :
% DSDMAC % SAS
Ex. 2 3.67 0.52
3 4.40 0.425
4 4.~0 0.90
4.00 0.33
The DSDMAC of the foregoing examples has a molecular we;ght of about
575 and includes in addition to C18 alkyl some C16 alkyl as well.
The paraffin sulfonate has a molecular weigh~ of about 328 according to
the Epton method.
Example 6
Eash of khe -Foregoing examples lBg lC, lD, 2, 33 4 and 5 is repeated
utilizing the following cationics and paraffin sulfonates with comparable
A. di-octadecyl, die~hyl ammonium methosulfate.
B. di-hexadecyl di-isopropyl ammonium acetate
. di-eicosyl dimekhyl ammonium bromide.
D. 2-heptadecyl-1-methyl-1-oleylamidoethyl imidazol;nium ethosulfate.
E. 2~coco-1-(2-hydroxyethyl) 1-benzyl im;dazolinium chloride.
F. distearyl, hydroxypropyl methyl ammonium chloride.
~. C1~ paraffin sulfonate
H- C18 paraffin sulfonate.
The aqueous softening compositions o~ this inYention are generally appli-
I cable as other such composi~ions, par~icularly useful in the rinse cycle of anautomatic laundry machine. In such operations as well as in any other desired
method of treating clothes, the composi~ions are usually employed to provide
generally an actives concen~ration oF from about 0.005% to 0.3% based on
the we;ght of clothes treated preferably 0.007% to about 0.2% and most prefe-
rably from about 0.01% to about 0.15 %
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