The composition surfactant formulation detergent and cleaner for cleaning hard surface formulacões fibres, yarns and fabrics of synthetic latex emulsions and processes for producing the composition te

摘要

Alcohol ethoxylate surfactants particularly useful in detergents are combinations of formulae HO.(EO)n1.R1 (Ia) and HO.(EO)n2.R2 (Ib) where EO is ethyleneoxy; n1 is 3 to 8; n2 is 4.5 to 9; R1 is c8 to C12 alkyl and on average C9 to less than C12; and R2 is C12 to C16 alkyl and on average C12 to C15; in weight proportions so the average carbon number in R1 and R2 is 10.5 to 12 and the overall average number of EO units is 4.5 to 8. Such combinations afford a combination of good surfactancy, particularly detergency, with low aquatic toxicity. Desirably, the composition is of mixed-alcohol ethoxylates, i.e. alcohol ethoxylates made by ethoxylating a mixture of alcohols to satisfy the requirements set out. The surfactants can be used in detergent formulations, e.g. for laundry and hard surface cleaning, for fibre, yarn and fabric scouring, or as emulsifiers.