Formulations comprising an anti-microbial composition

1. A formulation comprising:

(A) a surfactant mixture comprising at least one non-ionic surfactant and at least one amine oxide; and

(B) an anti-microbial composition that comprises (i) an anti-microbial agent with surfactant properties which is at least one quaternary ammonium compound having the formula (CH 3 ) n (A) m N + X − ,

wherein each A represents, independently, a substituted or unsubstituted and/or straight chain or branched and/or interrupted or uninterrupted alkyl, aryl, alkylaryl, arylalkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl or alkenyl group or two or more of A together represent a substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclic ring, formed together with the nitrogen atom, and wherein the total number of carbon atoms in the groups A and CH 3 is at least 4;

wherein the substituents for the groups A are selected from the group consisting of alkyl, substituted alkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, heterocyclyl, substituted heterocyclyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, aryl, substituted aryl, alkylaryl, substituted alkylaryl, arylalkyl, substituted arylalkyl, F, Cl, Br, I, —OR′, —NR′R″, —CF 3 , —CN, —NO 2 , —C 2 R′, —SR′, —N 3 , —C(═O)NR′R″, —NR′C(═O)R″, —C(═O)R′, —C(═O)OR′, —OC(═O)R′, —O(CR′R″) r C(═O)R′, —O(CR′R″) r NR″C(═O)R′, —O(CR′R″) r NR″SO 2 R′, —OC(═O)NR′R″, —NR′C(═O)OR″, —SO 2 R′, —SO 2 NR′R″, and —NR′SO 2 R″;

wherein R′ and R″ are individually hydrogen, C l -C 8 alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl, aryl, or arylalkyl, and r is an integer from 1 to 6, or R′ and R″ together form a cyclic functionality;

wherein the term “substituted” as applied to alkyl, alkenyl, heterocyclyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, alkylaryl and arylalkyl refers to the substituents described above, starting with F and ending with —NR′SO 2 R″;

and wherein X − is halide or sulphonate;

n is from 1 to 3 and m is from 1 to 3 provided that the sum of n and m is 4; and

wherein if each A is an unsubstituted or uninterrupted alkyl, each of A is independently a C 6-12 alkyl group;

(ii) a hydrophobic material which comprises at least one siloxane selected from those having the formula (H 3 C)[SiO(CH 3 ) 2 ] n Si(CH 3 ) 3 , and (H 3 C)[SiO(CH 3 )H] n Si(CH 3 ) 3 wherein n is from 1 to 24; and (iii) a polar solvent;

wherein the formulation does not comprise an anionic surfactant, and the ratio of molecules of component (i) to component (ii) is from 100:1 to 5:1.

2. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein component (A) further comprises at least one amphoteric surfactant.

3. A formulation according to claim 1 wherein component (A) consists essentially of at least one non-ionic surfactant and at least one amine oxide.

4. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the composition (B) comprises an additional anti-microbial agent (iv).

5. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the composition (B) comprises colloids which are made up of components (i), (ii) and optionally an additional anti-microbial agent (iv).

6. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein n=2 and m=2 and each A is a straight chain, unsubstituted and uninterrupted C 8-12 alkyl group or a benzyl group.

7. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the quaternary ammonium compound is a benzalkonium halide or an aryl ring substituted derivative thereof.

8. An anti-microbial composition according to claim 7 , wherein the benzalkonium halide has the formula:

wherein R is a substituted or unsubstituted and/or straight chain or branched and/or interrupted or uninterrupted alkyl, aryl, alkylaryl, arylalkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl or alkenyl group.

9. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the quaternary ammonium compound is selected from domiphen bromide and benzethonium chloride, benzyldimethyl-n-tetradecyl-ammonium chloride, benzyldimethyl-n-dodecyl-ammonium chloride, n-dodecyl-n-tetradecyldimethyl-ammonium chloride and benzyl-C 12 -C 16 -alkyl-dimethyl-ammonium chloride, benzyl-cocoalkyl-dimethyl-ammonium chloride, di-n-decyldimethylammonium chloride, Maquat A and mixtures thereof.

10. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio of molecules of component (i) to component (ii) is from about 40:1 to about 60:1.

11. A formulation according to claim 1 wherein the siloxane comprises at least one of hexamethyl disiloxane, octamethyl trisiloxane, decamethyl tetrasiloxane and dodecamethyl pentrasiloxane.

12. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the polar solvent is selected from water, ethanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, diethylene glycol and dipropylene glycol and mixtures thereof.

13. A formulation according to claim 4 , wherein the least one additional anti-microbial agent (iv) is selected from polymeric biguanidines, isothiazalones, ortho phenyl phenol and nitro bromopropanes.

14. A formulation according to claim 13 , wherein the additional anti-microbial agent is polyhexamethylene biguanidine.

15. A formulation according to claim 4 , wherein the total number of molecules of the anti-microbial component (i) and component (iv) to every molecule of component (ii) is from about 5 to about 80.

16. A formulation according to claim 2 comprising at least one non-ionic surfactant and at least one amphoteric surfactant, provided that the total amount of amphoteric surfactant is 5% or less based on the total weight of the formulation.

17. A formulation according to claim 1 in the form of a surface cleaner, a toilet care product, a dishwashing product, a laundry product, an outdoor cleaning product, a food spray, a personal care product, a baby product, a first aid product, a foot hygiene product or a car cleaning product.

18. A formulation according to claim 1 which, on application to a surface, acts to substantially reduce of control the formation of microbial colonies on or at the surface.

19. A process for preparing a formulation as defined in claim 1 which comprises mixing an anti-microbial composition with the other components of the formulation, wherein the anti-microbial composition has been prepared by a process which comprises:

(I) mixing together (i) an anti-microbial agent with surfactant properties as defined in claim 1 and (ii) a hydrophobic material as defined in claim 1 ; and (II) adding (iii) a polar solvent to the product of step (I); and (III) agitating the resulting mixture until a clear solution is formed.

20. A process according to claim 19 , wherein the anti-microbial composition is mixed with a pre-prepared surfactant-containing formulation.

21. A formulation according to claim 1 , wherein the non-ionic surfactant is selected from ethylene oxide/propylene oxide block polymers, polyethoxylated sorbitan esters, fatty esters of sorbitan, ethoxylated fatty esters (containing from 1 to 25 units of ethylene oxide), polyethoxylated C 8 -C 22 alcohols (containing from 1 to 25 units of ethylene oxide), polyethyoxylated C 6 -C 22 alkyiphenols (containing from 5 to 25 units of ethylene oxide), and alkylpolyglycosides.

22. A formulation according to claim 21 , wherein the non-ionic surfactant is a polyethoxylated C 8 -C 22 alcohol containing from 1 to 25 units of ethylene oxide.

23. A formulation according to claim 1 comprising:

(A) at least one non-ionic surfactant and at least one amine oxide; and

(B) an anti-microbial composition that comprises (i) at least one quaternary ammonium compound as defined in claim 1 , (ii) at least one siloxane, including a siloxane as defined in claim 1 , (iii) water, and (iv) polyhexamethylene biguanide.

24. A formulation according to claim 1 , which does not contain an isothiazalone.