Use of high‐active alpha olefin sulfonates in laundry powders

Abstract

Alpha olefin sulfonates (AOS) have been used successfully for many years in laundry and personal-care products throughout Asia. Among their documented positive attributes are good cleaning and high foaming in both soft and hard water, rapid biodegradability, and good skin mildness. AOS has commonly been marketed as approximately 40%-active aqueous solutions. However, with the increased importance of compact powder detergents produced by processes other than spray drying, high-active forms of AOS including 70%-active pastes and 90+%-active powders are now being utilized for that product sector. In this regard, the rheological properties of non-Newtonian AOS and AOS/additive pastes at relevant process temperatures were measured and found potentially suitable for agglomeration processes. Also, the relationship of AOS powder particle size to surfactant solubility at various wash conditions was examined to allow determination of the optimal size for both detergency and processing of laundry powders. Both paste rheology and powder morphology are critical factors for the successful use of high-active AOS in compact powder detergents. JSD 1, 361-369 (1998). KEY WORDS:Alpha olefin sulfonate, detergent, powder, surfactant.Alpha olefin sulfonates (AOS) are obtained by direct sulfonation of alpha olefins (AO) of varying chain lengths to form complex mixtures of alkene and hydroxyalkane sulfonate isomers. Several references describe the process chemistry for AOS production (1,2). Purity of the commercial AO feedstock is critical for obtaining high-quality AOS. For example, trace impurities such as di-olefins can lead to color formation during the sulfonation process. Also, high levels of paraffins lower the yield of active surfactant. Of particular importance for AOS used in powder detergent formulations, high levels of branched and internal olefins lead to reduced detergency and powder formulations with reduced flowability (2). Table 1 shows a comparison of olefin compositions obtained from three different ethylene-based olefin production processes and their positive and negative attributes when used as feedstock for AOS production. The advantages of using feedstocks containing high levels of normal AO are clearly evident. A detailed description of the three AO production processes may be found elsewhere (3).The sodium salts of AOS have been used for many years as anionic surfactants in a variety of industrial, personalcare, and household-cleaning applications. Beneficial attributes of AOS include good cleaning and foaming properties in both soft and hard water, mildness to skin, and rapid biodegradability. Household applications include laundry and dish detergents, and personal-care applications include shampoos and liquid hand soaps. In Asia, particularly Japan and Korea, AOS has commonly been used in laundry powders. For production of low-density powders in spray towers, 40%-active aqueous solutions are suitable for use. However, with the increasing market share of compact powder detergents, new high-active forms of AOS w...

Nontoxic Processing of Reliable Macro‐Porous Ceramics

“…The foaming surfactant is an alpha olefin sulfonate (AOS) free of skin irritants and sensitizers, presenting fast biodegradation. AOS compounds are commonly used in high‐quality shampoos, light‐duty liquid detergents, and bubble baths due to outstanding detergency, good wetting, and foaming properties . The thickening agent is hydroxyl‐propyl‐methyl‐cellulose (HPMC), which increases the liquid media viscosity, decreasing the drainage rate of the liquid film and improving the foam stability.…”

Effect of Amino Acids on Micellization and Micellar Parameters of Anionic Surfactant Alpha Olefin Sulfonate C14–C16 in Aqueous Solutions: Surface Tension, Conductometric, Volumetric, and Fluorescence Studies

“…Alpha olefin sulfonates (AOS) are a class of anionic surfactants, which are characterized with excellent foaming, wetting, emulsifying, dispersing, and stabilizing ability properties. − It is very important that AOS have low toxicity and high biodegradability. , Because of these properties, AOS are widely used in many industrial processes including emulsion polymerization, wax emulsification, and textile processing, and they are one of the main components of household-cleaning and person-care products. − For example, sodium olefin sulfonates, in general, are used up to 5% in cleansers, and 16% in shampoos and bath shower products, specifically, sodium C 14–16 AOS is used at 3.6% in facial cleansing foams, >5–10 % in skin care preparations, and >10% in personal cleanliness products . At the same time, most of the person-care and cosmetic products also contain as a main component amino acids (AA) .…”

“…Sodium AOS have been mainly studied in view of their application as emulsifiers and cleaning agents − ,,, and there are a few studies in which physicochemical and colloidal properties of sodium AOS aqueous solutions both in the absence and presence of additives, mainly in the presence of gelatin, are presented. − In this paper the behavior of important parameters of sodium alpha olefin sulfonate C 14 –C 16 in aqueous solutions, such as critical micelle concentration, degree of counterion binding, aggregation number, values of standard volumes of transfer, and the effect of three AA-glycine, alanine, leucine, on the parameters of sodium alpha olefin sulfonate C 14 –C 16 in aqueous solutions at different temperatures are presented to reveal the role of intermolecular interactions in the studied systems.…”