Cationic surfactants in laundry detergents and laundry aftertreatment aids

Abstract

Cationic surfactants have a positively charged nitrogen atom and at least one hydrophobic, long-chain substitucnt in the molecule. Because of their fabric-softening and antistatic properties, they are used as active materials in fabric-softening agents. Suitable cationic surfactants are mostly quaternary ammonium salts, and to a lesser extent, imidazolinium salts with two long hydrophobic alkyl chains. Alkylated, partly cthoxylated polyamincs, amine amities, ester amines and di-quaternary compounds also have recently been used or proposed. Fabric softeners generally are aqueous dispersions of distearyl dimcthyl ammonium chloride or tallow alkylated inaidazolinium derivatives in concentrations of 1-9%. Concentrated fabric softeners have recently been pushed into the market as double, triple or 10-fold concentrates. Fabric softeners used in the forms of aerosol sprays, pads or sheets, are not used in the washing machine but can be used in the laundry dryer. The combination of laundry detergent and fabric softener is a single product is impaired by anionic surfactants normally contained in laundry detergents because they react with thc cationics to form neutral salts. With the so-called soft detergents, one attempts to circumvent these difficulties by means of special formulations, e.g.. with nonionics or by using definite physical-chemical mechanisms. They represent a compromise with regard to detergency performance and softening effect. Why is Conditioning of Textiles Necessary as anAccompanying Treatment after Washing? Special properties are imparted to textiles by finishing and R\~/cH3 Q N X R / N CH 3 R = C16/C18 X = Cl or CH3-O-SO 3 FIG. 2. Distearyl dimethyl ammonium chloride.

Rinse‐added fabric softener technology at the close of the twentieth century

“…Several thousand patents have been filed in the last 30 yr covering variations and combinations of new and old molecules as well as formulations of softener actives with different cosurfactants and functional additives (3,5,18,22,49). In practice, the mole-cules described earlier represent probably 99% of the cationic actives being used in rinse-added fabric softeners around the world today as a result of their ability to meet regional performance requirements (Table 4).…”

“…They provide a renewable finish that interferes only minimally with the laundering process. They are based on low-cost raw materials, predominantly tallow, lard, or, alternatively, on seed oils such as palm oil, soybean, or canola (rapeseed) oil (18). They are relatively easy to formulate with conventional mixing equipment and require few supplemental ingredients.…”

Long‐chain fatty ammonium quaternaries in papermaking

“…Previous reports indicated that a temperature rise increases quaternary ammonium salt adsorption on cellulose (18). The temperature used in our present work was the same in all the experiments because the purpose was to simulate the conditions used in the paper industry.…”

Imidazoline and Its Derivatives : An Overview

“…It is prequiste for the softening and antistatic effect of cationic surfactants (imidazoline), that they are absorbed on the textile substrates [37][38][39][40][41] . A high degree of subtantivity between the negatively charged textile surfaces and the positively charged part of the cationic surfactants (imidazoline) molecules in the aqueous phase exists ( ) under the condition of rinse bath, for intance, wool or cotton absorb more than 90% of the quaternary ammonium derivative of imidazoline compounds from the aqueous phase.…”

“…Several thousands patents have been filed in the last 30 years covering variation and combinations of new and old molecules as well as formations of softeners actives with different cosurfactants and functional additives [4][5][6][7][8] . In practice, the molecules DHTDMAC, diamidoamine, imidazoline and esterquats are probably 99% of the cationic actives being used in rinse added fabric softeners around the world today as a result of their ability to meet regional performance requirement.…”