US2054257A - Emulsification process - Google Patents

Description

Patented Sept. 15, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EMULSIFICATION PROCESS Richard Hueter, Rosslau/Anhalt, Germany, assignor to Deutsche Hydrierwerke Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany, a corporation of Germany No Drawing.

Serial No. 754,540. 1933 12 Claims.

fore whereby fats or waxes or mixtures of the same containing fatty alcohols may be emulsified. Many of the emulsions prepared according to these methods, however, are unstable on stand- :3 ing or in the presence of such substances as acids, alkalies and salts. Furthermore many of these emulsions are of such a character that their uses are quite limited.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new method for emulsifying fatty acids or their derivatives alone or in admixture with each other. It is a further object of the invention to produce self-emulsifying oils and waxes which may contain fatty alcohols. It is a still further object of the invention to produce more stable emulsions of these fatty acids and their derivatives than has been heretofore possible. It is a still further object of the invention to produce such emulsions of the type mentioned in a form in which they are much more useful than sim ilar emulsions described in the prior art. Other objects will appear hereinafter.

These objects are accomplished by adding to the fatty acids, their esters or alcohols produced therefrom or mixtures of these materials either prior to or during emulsification, a quaternary ammonium salt or a mixture of quaternary ammonium salts, said salts having in the molecule at least one alkyl radical containing more than '7 carbon atoms. The preferred emulsions are prepared from mixtures of fatty oils or waxes and fatty alcohols, using as the emulsifying agent a quaternary ammonium salt having at least one alkyl radical containing more than 7 carbon 45 atoms attached directly to the nitrogen atom.

The invention may be better understood from a consideration of the following examples. These examples are to be construed as illustrative only and not as limiting the scope of the invention.

Example 1 A mixture consisting of equal parts of octadecyl alcohol and parafiin is emulsified in 100 parts of a water solution of a cetylmethylpiperidinium methyl sulfate. The emulsion so produced is Application November 23, 1934, In Germany November 17,

much more stable than emulsions produced by prior art methods and has been found to be quite suitable as a treating agent for textile materials.

Example 2 To a mixture consisting of equal parts of octa decyl alcohol and parafiin, 10 parts of cetylpi peridinium bromide are added. The mixture thus formed is readily emulsified in 100 parts of water to give an excellent textile treating agent, similar to the one produced by Example 1.

The above mixture when emulsified in 90 parts of water produced a very stable emulsion.

The emulsifying agents mentioned above are merely illustrative of the broad class to which the invention may be applied. In its broadest scope the invention applies to compounds included in the class defined by the following general formula:

R: Ri-I IRa X/ R1 in which R1, R2. R3 and R4 are hydrocarbon radicals which may contain a wide variety of substituents and two or more of which may be joined and in which X is an acid residue which may be partly esterified, one of said radicals containing at least 8 carbon atoms. The preferred members of this group are those in which R1 is a normal primary hydrocarbon radical containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms and in which R2 and R3 are joined together with the nitrogen atom to form a heterocyclic nucleus in which R4 is a normal primary hydrocarbon radical and in which X is an inorganic strong acid radical which may be partly esterified. The groups R1, R2, R3 and RA above may be aliphatic, aromatic or alicyclic or three of them together with the nitrogen may repre sent a heterocyclic ring or two of them together with the nitrogen may represent a hydrogenated heterocyclic ring. The preferred substituents are normal primary alkyl groups. Very good results are also obtained if the molecule contains a heterocyclic or hydrogenated heterocyclic ring, as pyridine, piperidine, quinoline, isoquinoline, etc. The acid residue is preferably of inorganic origin but it may be partially esterifled with an organic compound as, for example, a monoester of a dibasic acid. Suitable inorganic acid residues are obtained from the halogen acids, i. e., the acids of chlorine, bromine and iodine and other inorganic strong acids such as sulfuric, nitric and phosphoric. 'The enumeration of all the compounds falling within the above class would be a colossal be used will vary with the specific materials to be emulsified and with the use to which the emulsion is to be put. The quantities mentioned in the examples have been found to be satisfactory but wide variations from these proportions are permissible.

Individual members of the group of emulsifying agents may be used alone or mixtures of the emulsifying agents may be used. The mixtures may be in any proportion.

The materials which may be emulsified according to the process of this invention includes fats, oils and mixtures of fats and/or oils with fatty alcohols. These mixtures may, likewise, be in widely varying proportions and the oils and waxes may be such as are obtained from diversified sources, such as oils and waxes obtained from petroleum, bone fat, bone grease, beef tallow, mutton tal1ow,spermaceti, olive oil, sesame oil, castor oil. rape-seed oil, palm kernel oil, Japan wax, Carnauba wax, Montan wax, etc. It will be noted that the aforementioned illustrative compounds are of mineral, vegetable and animal origin, but it is not intended by this specific description to exclude numerous additional oils and waxes derived from similar sources, likewise, synthetic oils and waxes are contemplated herein regardless of their method of manufacture.

The aforementioned materials will be referred to hereinafter in the specification and claims as oil-like materials.

The above mentioned materials may be used either alone or in admixture with each other in widely varying proportions or in admixture with fatty alcohols and, also, various proportions may be used as starting materials to produce emulsions or may be combined with the emulsifying agents to produce self-emulsifying mixtures.

Fatty alcohols are those which are readily obtained from fatty acids and their esters by known I hydrogenation processes. These alcohols include octyl, decyl, lauryl, myristyl, cetyl, stearyl, oleyl, ricinoleyl and linoleyl.

It is to be understood that the emulsions which are the subject matter of this invention may be prepared in a wide variety of ways. The emulsifying agent may be combined with the material to be emulsified prior to emulsification to give a self-emulsifying mixture of oils and/or fats and/or fatty alcohols. This mixture may then be emulsified in water at any desired time. Alternatively, the emulsifying agent may be added to the liquid in which the oil-like materials or the mixture of oil-like materials with fatty alcohols are to be emulsified or the emulsions may be prepared in any other desired manner. These emulsions have the particular advantage that they are generally more stable than the emulsions pre pared according to previously described methods. In addition they are stable towards acids, alcohols and salts so that they may be kept stable in both acid and alkaline media or they may be kept in a substantially neutral medium in which form the field of their use is extended considerably beyond that of the prior art emulsions which are not stable under these conditions.

It is apparent that many widely different embodiments of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and, therefore, it is not to be limitedexcept as indicated in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An aqueous emulsion comprising water, an oil-like material, a fatty alcohol and a quaternary ammonium salt containing an alkyl radical having at least 8 carbon atoms in the chain.

2. An aqueous emulsion comprising water, an oil-like material, a fatty alcohol and a quaternary ammonium salt of the following general formula:

Rat-R.

X 4 in which R1, R2, R3 and R4 are hydrocarbon radicals, at least'two of which may be joined, and at least one of which contains more than 7 carbon atoms and in which X is an inorganic strong acid residue.

3. An emulsion asdescribed in claim 2, further characterized in that R1 is a normal primary hydrocarbon radicalcontaining from 12 to 18 carbon atoms.

4. An aqueous emulsion comprising water, an oil-like material, a fatty alcohol containing at least 8 carbon atoms and a quaternary ammonium salt of the following general formula:

x R4 in which R1 is a normal primary hydrocarbon radical containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms and Ra, R3 and R4 are hydrocarbon radicals, at least two of which may be joined and X is an inorganic strong acid residue.

5. An aqueous emulsion comprising water, a fatty alcohol containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms, a mixture of paraffin hydrocarbons derived from petroleum, and a quaternary ammonium salt of the following general formula:

in which R1 is a normal primary hydrocarbon radical containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms and R2, R3 and R4 are hydrocarbon radicals, at least two of which may be joined and X is an inorganic strong acid resdue.

6. An aqueous emulsion comprising water, a fatty alcohol containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms, a mixture of paramn hydrocarbons derived from petroleum, and an alkyl piperidinium salt wherein the alkyl group contains more than 7 carbon atoms.

7. An aqueous emulsion comprising water, a fatty alcohol containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms, a mixture of paraflin hydrocarbons derived from petroleum, and an alkyl piperidinium salt wherein the alkyl group contains from 12 to 18 carbon atoms.

Ra Bri Ra in which R1, Ra, Ra and R4 are hydrocarbon radicals, at least two of which may be joined and at least one of which contains more than 7 carbon atoms and in which x is an inorganic strong acid residue.

10. A process'as described in claim 9, further characterized in that R: is. a normal primary hydrocarbon radical containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms.

11. A process which comprises emulsifying an oil-like material and a fatty alcohol containing at least 8 carbon atoms in water in the presence of a quaternary ammonium salt of the following general formula:

Illa

x R. in which R1 is a normal primary hydrocarbon radical containing from 12 to 18 carbon atoms and Ra. R: and R4 are hydrocarbon radicals, at least two of which may be joined and X is an inorganic strong acid residue.

12. An aqueous emulsion comprising water;

octadecyl alcohol, and cetyl methyl piperidinium methyl sulfate.

RICHARDHUETER.