Fabric Conditioning Compositions
A fabric softening composition comprising from 1 to 80% by weight of ester-linked quaternary ammonium fabric softening material comprising a quaternised mixture of mono- di- and tri-ester of alkanolamine in which the tri-ester content of said mixture is from 25 to 50% by weight of said mixture, wherein: (i) when the tri-ester content is from 25 to 30% by weight of said mixture the free amine content of the composition is less than 0.5% by weight on the weight of said mixture, (ii) when the tri-ester content is more than 30% by weight of said mixture the free amine content of the composition is less than 6% by weight based on the weight of said mixture, the composition containing less than 1% by weight of free fatty acid based on said mixture.
1 . A fabric softening composition comprising from 1 to 80% by weight of ester-linked quaternary ammonium fabric softening material comprising a quaternised mixture of mono- di- and tri-ester of alkanolamine in which the tri-ester content of said mixture is from 25 to 50% by weight of said mixture, wherein:
(i) when the tri-ester content is from 25 to 30% by weight of said mixture the free amine content of the composition is less than 0.5% by weight on the weight of said mixture,
(ii) when the tri-ester content is more than 30% by weight of said mixture the free amine content of the composition is less than 6% by weight based on the weight of said mixture,
the composition containing less than 1% by weight of free fatty acid based on said mixture.
2 . A composition as claimed in claim 1 wherein the quaternary ammonium cationic softening material is represented by formula (I):
wherein each R is independently selected from a C 5-35 alkyl or alkenyl group, R 1 represents a C 1-4 alkyl or hydroxyalkyl group or a C 2-4 alkenyl group,
n is an integer selected from 1 to 4, m is 1, 2 or 3 and denotes the number of moieties to which it refers that pend directly from the N atom, and X − is an anionic substance selected from the group consisting of halides or alkyl sulphates.
3 . A composition as claimed in claim 1 in which the fabric softening material is a mixture of tallow esters of triethanolamine ammonium compound.
4 . A composition as claimed in claim 3 in which the tallow is hardened tallow.
5 . A composition as claimed in claim 1 in which the tri-ester content is more than 30% and the free amine content is less than 5% by weight of the mixture.
6 . A composition as claimed in claim 1 which comprises from 0.2 to 15% by weight of a fatty alcohol containing from 8 to 22 carbon atoms.
7 . A composition as claimed in claim 1 which comprises from 0.01 to 18% by weight of a non-ionic surfactant.