Dispersible wet wipes
View Patent ↗A wet wipe comprises a nonwoven material. The nonwoven material comprises a fibrous material and a binder composition. The binder composition includes a cationic ion-sensitive emulsion polymer, which can comprise the emulsion polymerization product of at least one hydrophobic monomer which has been stabilized by a solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer stabilizer. In some aspects, a solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer binder can be solution blended with the already-formed cationic ion-sensitive emulsion polymer to provide additional benefits. In other aspects, the solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer binder is the same as the s-solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer stabilizer.
1. A wet wipe comprising a nonwoven material;
wherein the nonwoven material comprises a binder composition;
wherein the binder composition comprises a cationic ion-sensitive emulsion polymer;
wherein the cationic ion-sensitive emulsion polymer comprises the emulsion polymerization product of at least one hydrophobic monomer which has been stabilized by a solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer stabilizer;
wherein the cationic ion-sensitive emulsion polymer comprises between 1 wt % and 55 wt % of the solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer stabilizer;
wherein the nonwoven material comprises a fibrous material; and
wherein the solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer stabilizer is the polymerization product of methyl acrylate and [2 (acryloxy)ethyl]trimethyl ammonium chloride.
2. The wet wipe of claim 1 wherein the hydrophobic monomer is selected from (meth)acrylates such as methyl(meth)acrylate, ethyl(meth)acrylate, butyl (meth)acrylate; (meth)acrylamides such as N-octyl(meth)acrylamide and N-butyl methacrylamide; vinyl esters such as vinyl acetate, vinyl versetate, vinyl neononanoate, vinyl neodecanoate, vinyl esters of versatic acid; unsaturated hydrocarbons such as ethylene, propylene, butylene, and butadiene; styrene; acrylonitrile; or combinations thereof.
3. The wet wipe of claim 1 , wherein the cationic ion-sensitive emulsion polymer further comprises a hydrophilic monomer.
4. The wet wipe of claim 1 wherein the binder composition further comprises a solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer binder.
5. The wet wipe of claim 4 wherein the solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer binder is the same as the solution-polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer stabilizer.
6. The wet wipe of claim 4 wherein the binder composition has a total solution polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer content between 1 wt % and 55 wt %.
7. The wet wipe of claim 1 wherein the solution polymerization-derived cationic ion-sensitive polymer binder is the polymerization product of methyl acrylate and [2 (acryloxy)ethyl]trimethyl ammonium chloride.
8. The wet wipe of claim 1 wherein the wet wipe is saturated with a wetting composition.
9. The wet wipe of claim 8 wherein the wetting composition comprises an aqueous solution having between 0.3 wt % and 10 wt % inorganic salt.
10. The wet wipe of claim 9 wherein the wetting composition comprises an aqueous solution having between 0.5 wt % and 2 wt % inorganic salt.
11. The wet wipe of claim 9 wherein the inorganic salt is sodium chloride.
12. The wet wipe of claim 11 wherein the sodium chloride is present in the wetting composition between 1 wt % and 2 wt %.
13. The wet wipe of claim 1 having an in-use tensile strength of greater than 150 g/in.
14. The wet wipe of claim 1 having a tensile strength of less than 100 g/in after being soaked in for 4.5 hours in deionized water.
15. The wet wipe of claim 1 having a tensile strength of less than 50 g/in after being soaked in deionized water for 24 hours.
16. The wet wipe of claim 1 having an in-use wet-tensile of at least 300 g/in and a tensile strength of less than 35% of the in-use wet-tensile after being soaked in deionized water for about one hour.