Natural feel polymers
View Patent ↗Natural feel polymers exhibit an advantageous blend of flexibility and a strong affinity to natural fibers imparting a natural feel when applied to keratin-based fibers, e.g. hair, skin, or textiles, e.g. cotton, wool, and are water-soluble and water-resistant. The polymers include repeat units of a monomer (e.g. α-olefin) maleic anhydride alkyl half-ester or full acid, maleamic acid and maleimide, which are derivatized with a polyether amine.
1. A natural feel polymer which shows an advantageous blend of stiffness and flexibility, a strong affinity to natural fibers, water-solubility and water-resistance, characterized structurally by repeat units of (a) a monomer-maleic anhydride alkyl half-ester or full acid, (b) maleamic acid, and (c) maleimide, of the formulas:
where:
R, R 1 , R 2 and R 3 are selected from H, alkyl, alkoxy, cycloalkyl, aryl, ester, acid, hydroxy, hydroxyalkyl, amido, fluoro, halo and silyl, and R 4 is H or alkyl; and
R′ is a polyoxyalkylene amine, having the formula:
where R 5 and R 6 are selected from H and alkyl; and n and m are integers from 1-50; wherein:
x, y and z are present, in mole %, of 0-99.9, 0-50 and 0.1-100, respectively.
2. A natural feel polymer according to claim 1 wherein x=0-50, y=0-5and z=5-100.
3. A natural feel polymer according to claim 1 wherein R 5 is CH 3 and R 6 is H.
4. A natural feel polymer according to claim 1 wherein both R 5 and R 6 are CH 3 .
5. A natural feel polymer according to claim 1 wherein n=32 and m=10.
6. A natural feel polymer according to claim 1 wherein, in (a), said monomer is an α-olefin.
7. A personal care formulation including the natural feel polymer of claim 1 .
8. A personal care formulation according to claim 7 which is a hair care product.
9. A hair care formulation according to claim 8 which is a styling, mousse, gel or spray hair care formulation.