GB1046252A - Improvements in and relating to surface active agents - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention comprises washing, cleaning, wetting and foaming agents comprising synthetic organic detergent compounds of the sulphate or sulphonate type and containing at least 0-5% by weight of surface-active sulphobetaines but in amounts not greater than 50% by weight of the amount of detergent sulphates or sulphonates in which the surface-active sulphobetaines have the formulae <FORM:1046252/C4-C5/1> <FORM:1046252/C4-C5/2> in each of which Q and according to one alternative R2 represent hydrophobic residues as defined below which may be linked with the nitrogen atom directly or via aromatic groups or via chains containing carbon atoms and atoms other than carbon, and R1 and, according to the second alternative R2, represent straight or branched-chain, aliphatic, cycloapliphatic or araliphatic hydrocarbon residues with not more than 7 carbon atoms, which may be linked together directly or via an intermediate member which may also be a hetero-atom or a hetero-atom group, while in the case when Q and R2 represent hydrophobic residues, the sum of the carbon atoms contained in R2 and Q does not exceed 20. The term "hydrophobic residue" is defined as being a residue with at least 8 carbon atoms which may have a straight or branched chain, aliphatic, cycloaliphatic or araliphatic residue and may be substituted and/or may contain atoms other than carbon. The detergent compositions preferably contain fatty alcohol sulphates in amounts up to 50% by weight of the total organic detergent substance of the sulphate or sulphonate type, the amounts preferably being at least equal to that of the sulphobetaine. Other detergent substances used include alkyl sulphonates, sulpho-fatty acid salts or esters, and olefine sulphonates, e.g. alkylbenzene sulphonates, esters of sulphosuccinic acid or other sulphodicarboxylic acids, tetrapropylenephenyl-ethyl sulphates, alkylphenoxy-ethyl-or alkylphenoxy-polyalkyleneglycol sulphates, fatty acohol glycerine ether sulphonates containing 1-10 polyethylene glycol residue per molecule, fatty acid mono or diglyceride sulphates and fatty acid alkylolamide sulphates. Other additives referred to are sodium sulphate, alkali metal carbonates and bicarbonates, water-soluble alkali metal silicates and alkali metal phosphates, e.g. ortho-, pyro-, meta-, tri- and tetra-polyphosphates; boric, citric, oxalic, lactic, glycollic tartaric acids and sodium bisulphate; water-soluble salts of polymeric carboxylic acids, glue, gelatine, salts of ether carboxylic or ether sulphonic acids, starch, cellulose and salts and sulphuric acid esters of starch and cellulose.