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Surfactant mixture containing short-chain and also long-chain components

Surfactant mixture containing short-chain and also long-chain components description/claims

The present invention relates to a surfactant mixture, to formulations comprising such surfactant mixtures, to methods of producing the surfactant mixtures, and to their use.

Surfactants are amphiphilic interface-active compounds which comprise a hydrophobic molecular moiety and also a hydrophilic molecular moiety and, in addition, can have charged or uncharged groups. Surfactants are orientedly adsorbed at interfaces and thereby reduce the interfacial tension so that these can form, in solution, association colloids above the critical micelle-formation concentration, meaning that substances which are per se water-insoluble in aqueous solutions are solubilized.

On account of these properties, surfactants are used, for example, for wetting solids such as fibers or hard surfaces. Here, surfactants are often used in combinations with one another and with further auxiliaries. Typical fields of application are detergents and cleaners for textiles and leather, as formulation of paints and coatings and, for example, in the recovery of petroleum.

Interesting surfactants are in particular those which represent alkoxylation products of alcohols. Here, it has been shown that it is particularly favorable to provide such compounds in various mixtures.

JP-A 2004/091686 describes the mixture of surfactants, where an alkoxylated branched aliphatic alcohol having 8 to 11 carbon atoms is mixed with a further aliphatic alcohol having 12 to 20 carbon atoms, which is likewise alkoxylated.

JP-A 2003/336092 likewise describes polyalkoxylene alkyl ethers which have to satisfy certain conditions.

JP-A 2004/035755 describes a nonionic surface-active composition which has alkyleneoxy adducts of an aliphatic alcohol with a HLB value of from 6 to 14.5, and of an aliphatic alcohol with a HLB value of from 11 to 16.

WO-A 94/11330 describes alkoxylates of 2-propylheptanol and their use for cleaning textile materials.

The same alkoxylates are described in WO-A 94/11331 for degreasing hard surfaces.

Finally, DE-A 19921330 describes the use of branched fatty alcohol ethoxylates having 8 to 22 carbon atoms which can be used as wool detergents.

Despite numerous surfactants which are described in the prior art, there continues to be a need for surfactants or surfactant mixtures which have, at least in part, better properties than those from the prior art. Such properties refer in particular to their wetting behavior, salt tolerance, foam formation, low tendency to form gels, their washing performance and their emulsion stability.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a surfactant mixture which, at least in relation to one of the properties listed above, has behavior which is superior to surfactants of the prior art.

The object is achieved by a surfactant mixture comprising (A) a short-chain component comprising the alkoxylation product of alkanols, where the alkanols have 8 to 12 carbon atoms and the average number of alkoxy groups per alkanol group in the alkoxylation product assumes a value from 3 to 30 and the alkoxy groups are chosen from the group consisting of ethoxy, propoxy, butoxy and pentoxy groups and the alkanols have an average degree of branching of at least 1; and (B) a long-chain component comprising the alkoxylation product of alkanols where the alkanols have 13 to 20 carbon atoms and the average number of alkoxy groups per alkanol group in the alkoxylation product assumes a value from 3 to 30 and the alkoxy groups are chosen from the group consisting of ethoxy, propoxy, butoxy and pentoxy groups and the alkanols have an average degree of branching of from 0.0 to 0.3.

The degree of branching of the alkanols (of the alkanol mixture) here is defined as follows:

The degree of branching of an alcohol arises from the branches of the carbon backbone. For each alcohol molecule, it is defined as the number of carbon atoms which are bonded to three further carbon atoms, plus two times the number of carbon atoms which are bonded to four further carbon atoms. The average degree of branching of an alcohol mixture arises from the sum of all degrees of branching of the individual molecules divided by the number of individual molecules. The degree of branching is determined, for example, by means of NMR methods. This can be carried out through analysis of the carbon backbone with suitable coupling methods (COSY, DEPT, INADEQUATE), followed by a quantification via 13C NMR with relaxation reagents. However, other NMR methods or GC-MS methods are also possible.

The average number of alkoxy groups arises from the sum of all alkoxy groups of the individual molecules divided by the number of individual molecules.

Mainly, it has been found that a surfactant mixture, as described in more detail above, of short-chain and long-chain component can have particularly good properties, particularly with regard to the abovementioned properties.

The surfactant mixture according to the present invention comprises a short-chain component (A) which has the alkoxylation product of branched alkanols, where the alkanols have 8 to 12 carbon atoms. More preferably, the alkanols have 9 to 11 carbon atoms, it being particularly preferred if the alkanols have 10 carbon atoms.

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