Fabric conditioning composition
A fabric conditioning composition comprising an emulsion of particles in an aqueous vehicle, the particles comprising (a) an esterquat comprising an alkyl dialkanol amine esterquat of a fatty acid, wherein from at least 90 wt % to up to 100 wt % of the esterquat is comprised of diesterquat and from 0 wt % to up to 10 wt % of the esterquat is comprised of monoesterquat, and the fatty acid is substantially saturated and has an iodine value of less than 5, and (b) a water swellable cationic polymer.
1. A fabric conditioning composition comprising an emulsion of particles having an average particle size of from 0.1 to 2 microns in an aqueous vehicle, the particles comprise
(a) an esterquat comprising an alkyl dialkanol amine esterquat of a fatty acid, wherein from at least 90 wt % to up to 100 wt % of the esterquat is comprised of diesterquat and from 0 wt % to up to 10 wt % of the esterquat is comprised of monoesterquat, and the fatty acid is substantially saturated and has an iodine value of less than 5, and
(b) a water swellable cationic polymer, which consists essentially of at least one of (i) a cationic linear copolymer that is derived from the polymerization of acrylic acid and/or methacrylic acid, or a salt of acrylic acid and/or methacrylic acid, and acrylamide or methacrylamide; and (ii) a cationic cross-linked polymer that is derived from the polymerization of cationic vinyl addition monomer, acrylamide, and a difunctional vinyl addition monomer cross linking agent; or a mixture of polymers (i) and (ii);
wherein the composition comprises from 0.25 to 0.5 wt % of the water swellable cationic polymer, based on the weight of the composition, and
wherein the composition comprises from 0.3 to 0.4% free fragrance based on the weight of the composition.
2. The composition of claim 1 , wherein from 0 wt % to up to 5 wt % of the esterquat is comprised of monoesterquat.
3. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the dialkanol amine comprises diethanol amine.
4. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the fatty acid comprises tallow.
5. The composition of claim 1 , wherein alkyl dialkanol amine esterquat of a fatty acid comprises a methyl dialkanol amine esterquat of a fatty acid.
6. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the fatty acid has a degree of saturation, based on the total weight of fatty acids, of from 97 to 100%.
7. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the fatty acid has an iodine value of from zero to up to 3.
8. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the alkyl dialkanol amine esterquat is present in an amount of 0.01 to 15% by weight of the composition.
9. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the water swellable cationic polymer has a charge density of 4 to 5 meq/g.
10. The composition of claim 1 , wherein (i) the cationic linear copolymer has a molecular weight of from about 10,000 to about 30 million; and (ii) the cationic cross-linked polymer is derived from the polymerization of from 5 to 100 mole percent of cationic vinyl addition monomer, from 0 to 95 mole percent of acrylamide, and from 70 ppm to 300 ppm of the difunctional vinyl addition monomer cross linking agent.
11. The composition of claim 10 , wherein the cationic linear copolymer (i) is derived from the polymerization of a salt of methacrylic acid and acrylamide.
12. The composition of claim 10 , wherein in the polymerization of the cationic linear copolymer (i) the salt comprises a quaternary ammonium salt of an acrylate or methacrylate.
13. The composition of claim 10 , wherein the cationic linear copolymer (i) has a molecular weight of from about 2 million to about 3 million.
14. The composition of claim 10 , wherein the cationic cross-linked polymer (ii) is derived from the polymerization using 75 to 200 ppm of the cross-linking agent.
15. The composition of claim 10 , wherein the cationic cross-linked polymer (ii) is derived from the polymerization of a salt of methacrylic acid and acrylamide.
16. The composition of claim 15 , wherein in the polymerization of the cationic cross-linked polymer (ii) the salt comprises a quaternary ammonium salt of an acrylate or methacrylate.
17. The composition of claim 10 , wherein in the polymerization of the cationic cross-linked polymer (ii), the polymer prior to cross-linking has a molecular weight of from about 2 million to about 3 million.
18. The composition of claim 10 , wherein in the polymerization of the cationic cross-linked polymer (ii), the cross-linker comprises methylene bis acrylamide.
19. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the composition comprises from 1.5 to 5 wt % diesterquat, based on the weight of the composition.
20. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the weight ratio of diesterquat to the water swellable cationic polymer is from 30:1 to 5:1.
21. A method of producing a fabric conditioning composition according to claim 1 , the method comprising the steps of:
a. providing the emulsion of particles; and
b. homogenizing the emulsion by passing the emulsion through a homogenizer at a pressure of from 2.1×10 7 to 1.03×10 8 Pa (3,000 to 15,000 psi) to form a homogenized emulsion.
22. The method of claim 21 wherein the homogenizing step (b) is carried out at a pressure of from 3.4×10 7 to 8.9×10 7 Pa (5,000 to 13,000 psi).
23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the homogenized emulsion comprises particles having an average particle size of from 0.1 to 2 microns.
24. The method of claim 21 , wherein in the homogenizing step (b) the emulsion is at a temperature of from 30 to 75° C.
25. The method of claim 21 , wherein the emulsion provided in step (a) is produced by a method comprising the steps of:
i. dispersing the water swellable cationic polymer into water at a temperature of from 30 to 75° C. and mixing to form an aqueous dispersion;
ii. adding the diesterquat to the aqueous dispersion; and
iii. mixing the resultant mixture to produce the composition in which the diesterquat is dispersed as an aqueous emulsion, and the aqueous emulsion comprises particles including a mixture of the triesterquat and the water swellable cationic polymer.
26. The method of claim 25 , wherein in step i the water is at a temperature of from 50 to 60° C.
27. The method of claim 26 , wherein in step ii the esterquat is dispersed into the water in the form of a molten liquid.
28. The method of claim 25 , wherein in step iii the mixing is carried out for a period of from 1 to 4 minutes using a shearing mixer to form the emulsion.
29. The method of claim 21 wherein the composition further comprises a fragrance and the method provides fragrance delivery onto the fabric.
30. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the water swellable cationic polymer comprises a FS200-type polymer such as Flosoft DP200.
31. A method of softening a fabric with the composition according to claim 1 comprising: (1) providing a fabric conditioning composition; (2) adding a fragrance to the fabric conditioning composition; (3) treating the fabric with the fabric conditioning composition during a rinse cycle of a washing process; and (4) improving the softness of the fabric to a level higher than that would be using the fabric conditioning composition without the added fragrance.