JP3025722B2 - Soft finish - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a softening agent, and more particularly, it can impart excellent flexibility and elasticity (fluffiness) to various fibers and has good dispersibility in water. It relates to a soft finish.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art
Most of the products marketed as softeners for household use are mainly composed of quaternary ammonium salts having two long-chain alkyl groups in one molecule such as di (hardened tallowalkyl) dimethylammonium chloride. The composition was as follows. The reason for this is that the quaternary ammonium salt has a good softening effect on various fibers in a small amount. However, while the above quaternary ammonium salts have a remarkable softening effect on cotton, acrylic,
It is hard to say that the effect is sufficient for synthetic fibers such as polyester-based and polyamide-based fibers. If the treatment is performed at a higher concentration, the elasticity of the garment may be reduced and the texture may be impaired. Furthermore, since the quaternary ammonium salt has a high hydrophobicity, when it is poured into rinse water, if the stirring power is weak, the quaternary ammonium salt is poorly dispersible in water, so that the clothing may be uneven. Also, especially for long-term storage at low temperatures,
May thicken, gel, or separate. Commercially available softeners include additives such as polyoxyethylene-based nonionic surfactants, electrolytes and solvents in addition to the above quaternary ammonium salts to improve dispersibility in water and long-term storage stability. However, the effect is still insufficient.

[0003] In addition, conventionally, liquid softening agents containing various amines as softening bases are known. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
Japanese Patent No. 59796 discloses a composition for imparting flexibility to a fiber containing a long-chain alkylamine such as methyldi (hardened tallowalkyl) amine. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-60070 discloses an acylated alkanolamine, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-166703 discloses a fiber material finishing agent for imparting smoothness and comfortable feel to fibers containing a quaternary ammonium salt and a fatty acid ester. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-275474 discloses a softening agent having a good dispersibility containing a condensation reaction product with an alkylamine polyglycol ether and a di (higher alkyl) cyclic amine and a Bronsted acid. JP-A-64-85368 discloses a divalent long chain alkylamine-anionic surfactant ion-pair complex, a non-silicone wax and JP-A-2-6662 discloses a softening composition containing a liquid carrier and a fabric conditioning composition containing an amine such as a condensate of a hydroxy lower alkylalkylenediamine and a higher fatty acid and an amphoteric fabric conditioning agent. JP-14076 describes a fabric conditioning composition containing a dilong chain alkylamine-polyfunctional carboxylic acid complex to impart flexibility and antistatic properties. Further, JP-A-52-5394
In the publication, a fabric conditioning composition containing a mono- or di-long-chain alkylalkylenediamine antistatic agent and a quaternary ammonium softener is described. However, these amine-containing softeners are relatively better in dispersibility and storage stability than quaternary ammonium salt-containing softeners, but their softening performance is not yet sufficient.

[0004]

The present inventors have SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As a result of extensive studies on softener containing an amine, certain amine compound or its neutralized product or quaternary products thereof, oils or <br/> fatty acid alkylene oxide adducts of an ester, or by using the alkylene oxide adducts of fats and oils or fatty acids or esters thereof and mixtures of polyhydric alcohols, excellent flexibility, yet resilient (the plump sensitive) can be imparted to the clothes, In addition, they have found that a soft finish having good dispersibility in water can be obtained, and have completed the present invention.

That is, the present invention provides the following component (a) and
(b) A soft finish containing a component as an essential component. (a) component; one or two hydrocarbon groups having 11 to 22 carbon atoms in the molecule;

[0006]

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Amine compound (A) or a neutralized product thereof with an inorganic acid or an organic acid having 6 or less carbon atoms or 4
Grade product component (b), alkylene oxide adducts of fats and oils or fatty San'e ester, or fat or fatty acid or an alkylene oxide adduct of an ester thereof with a mixture of polyhydric alcohols.

A typical example of the amine compound (A) as the component (a) of the present invention has the following structure.

[0009]

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Wherein R ¹ , R ² : an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a hydroxyalkyl group R ³ , R ⁴ : a hydrocarbon group having 11 to 22 carbon atoms, m, n, p: 1 to 6 means. ].

The amine compound (A) of the present invention can be obtained as follows. That is, the following formula obtained by cyanoethylation or hydrogenation of a dialkanolamine such as N-lower alkylalkanolamine or diethanolamine.

[0012]

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Can be obtained by reacting the compound represented by the formula with a fatty acid having 12 to 22 carbon atoms. In addition, as various compounds and impurities by-produced during these reactions,

[0014]

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[0015] Although trace amounts are produced, there is no problem if they are contained.

Examples of the acid for obtaining a neutralized product from the amine compound (A) include inorganic acids such as hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, and sulfuric acid, and carbon atoms having 6 carbon atoms such as acetic acid, lactic acid, glycolic acid, citric acid, and maleic acid. The following organic acids are listed, but hydrochloric acid is the cheapest and has high performance. In the neutralization step, the amine compound (A) previously neutralized may be dispersed in water, or the amine compound (A) may be charged in a liquid or solid state into an aqueous acid solution.
Of course, the amine compound (A) and the acid component may be simultaneously charged. The quaternized product of the amine compound (A) can be obtained by a known method using methyl chloride, dialkyl sulfate or the like.

(B) component of the [0017] present invention can be obtained by adding an alkylene oxide to a fat or fat San'e stearyl <br/> Le. The fat or oil is one or two selected from beef tallow, lard, palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, castor oil, or a hydride thereof.
Species or more. In addition, fatty acids include 10 carbon atoms.
It includes those 20 saturated or unsaturated straight-chain or branched-chain, such as stearic acid, tallow fatty acid, coconut oil fatty acid, such as oleic acid can be mentioned, et al is lower, such as methyl ester, ethyl ester as an ester Esters are preferred.

Further, a polyhydric alcohol may be added to these fats or oils or fatty acids or esters thereof, and an alkylene oxide may be added to the mixture. Examples of the polyhydric alcohol include glycerin, sorbitol, glucose, pentaerythritol, fructose, maltose, and sucrose. The mixing ratio of fats and oils or fatty acids or their esters to polyhydric alcohols is 99/1 to 40 /
60 (molar ratio), more preferably 99/1 to 50/50.

[0019] The oil or fat San'e ester, or as an alkylene oxide to be added to a mixture of these and polyhydric alcohols, preferably those having 2 to 4 carbon atoms, specifically referred to as ethylene oxide (hereinafter EO ) And propylene oxide (hereinafter abbreviated as PO).
The alkylene oxide is added in an amount of 3 to 20 times, more preferably 5 to 20 times, the moles of the fat or oil or the fatty acid or its ester, or a mixture of these and a polyhydric alcohol.

In the present invention, the weight ratio of component (a) to component (b) is (a) / (b) = 98/2 to 50/50, more preferably 95/50.
/ 5 to 80/20. Further, when a soft finish containing the compound according to the present invention as an essential component is commercialized into a liquid state, the total amount of the compound according to the present invention is 5 to 45% by weight, preferably 6 to 45% in consideration of the viscosity and handling properties of the product. It is 30% by weight, particularly preferably 10 to 30% by weight. Further, by adjusting the pH of the softening agent of the present invention to 1 to 5, preferably 1.5 to 3.0, it becomes a liquid softening agent that is stable even under storage under severe conditions.

When a liquid soft finish is used, an alkali metal salt or an alkaline earth metal salt is used in an amount of 0.01 to 1% by weight.
By blending, the handleability of the liquid soft finish is improved. Examples of these metal salts include sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, magnesium chloride and the like.

Further, in order to commercialize the soft finish of the present invention into a solid form, the composition containing the components (a) and (b) as essential components may be granulated or tableted, or a nonwoven fabric or an oil absorbing material may be used. It may be carried on powder.

The softening agent of the present invention may contain a known softening component such as a softening agent, a silicone compound, an ester such as a fatty acid glyceride, or a higher alcohol. Dyes, fragrances, antibacterial agents, fluorescent whitening agents, and the like can be used to improve the appearance and smell of the product.

[0024]

The soft finish of the present invention imparts sufficient flexibility and antistatic properties to various fibers, imparts excellent elasticity, and has good dispersibility in water. Furthermore, since the flexible component of the present invention has good biodegradability, the possibility of environmental pollution is small.

[0025]

Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

The compounds used in the Examples and Comparative Examples are shown in Tables 1 and 2 below.

[0027]

[Table 1]

[0028]

[Table 2]

Examples 1 to 16 and Comparative Examples 1 to 3 Using the components (a) and (b) shown in Tables 1 and 2 above,
Soft finishes having the formulations shown in Table 3 were prepared. Using these soft finishes, flexibility and elasticity were evaluated by the following methods. The dispersibility in water was evaluated by the following method.

<Evaluation of Flexibility and Elasticity> (1) Treatment method 2 kg of a commercially available cotton towel and 1 kg of an acrylic jersey were used for 3.5 times.
After washing 5 times repeatedly (30 liter washing machine) with a commercially available detergent attack (manufactured by Kao Corporation, registered trademark) in DH hard water to remove the fiber treating agent attached to each fiber, Table 3
1.5 g of the blended composition was charged and treated at 25 ° C. for 1 minute with stirring. (2) Evaluation method The cloth treated by the above method was air-dried in a room, and then left in a constant temperature and humidity room at 25 ° C and 65% RH for 24 hours. These fabrics were evaluated for flexibility and elasticity. Table 3 shows the results. [Evaluation Method of Flexibility and Elasticity] The evaluation of flexibility and elasticity was performed by comparing a pair of cloth treated with 10 cc of a softening agent comprising 15% by weight of dihydrogenated tallow alkyldimethylammonium chloride as a control. The evaluation is expressed as follows. +2: softer or more elastic than the control. +1; slightly softer or more elastic than the control. 0; same as control. -1; the control is slightly softer or slightly less elastic than the control. -2: The control is softer or less elastic than the control.

<Evaluation of Dispersibility in Water> In an automatic washing machine “Ginga 30” (manufactured by Toshiba Corporation), 20 liters of water and 1 kg of cotton towel set at 2 to 5 ° C. were added, and 1 kg of light rotation was performed. After stirring for minutes, stop and add 3 g of the soft finish of Table 3. The dispersibility of the soft finish in water is observed 30 seconds and 2 minutes after the soft finish is charged. ；: Completely uniform dispersion after 30 seconds △: Almost dispersion after 2 minutes ×: No dispersion after 2 minutes

[0032]

[Table 3]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI D06M 13/18

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A softening agent comprising the following components (a) and (b) as essential components. (a) component: one or two hydrocarbon groups having 11 to 22 carbon atoms in the molecule. Amine compound having a (A) or neutralized products or quaternary compound component (b) due to the inorganic or 6 following organic acids carbons; oil or fat San'e alkylene oxide adducts of ester, or fat or fatty acid or a Alkylene oxide adducts of mixtures of esters and polyhydric alcohols 2. The softening agent according to claim 1, wherein the amine compound (A) is one or more of amine compounds represented by the following general formula. Embedded image [Wherein R ¹ , R ² : an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a hydroxyalkyl group R ³ , R ⁴ : a hydrocarbon group m, n, p having 1 to 22 carbon atoms: 1 to 6] ] 3. The softening agent according to claim 1, wherein the polyhydric alcohol is selected from glycerin, sorbitol, glucose, pentaerythritol, fructose, maltose and sucrose. 4. The weight ratio of component (a) to component (b) is (a) /
(b) = 98/2 to 50/50.
4. The softening agent according to any one of claims 1 to 3.