Secondary alcohol ethoxylate as hydrotropes in highly concentrated detergents

Abstract: A greener future asks for higher active concentration in laundry detergents. The main current types are highly-concentrated laundry liquids and unit-dose capsules. While helping to cut down carbon footprints by reducing energy in transportation and plastics in packaging, they also pose formulation challenges due to gelation of conventional linear alcohol based surfactants at high concentrations. Currently, solvents such as MPG and glycerol are added to these formulations at 20-50wt%, adding a lot of cost and no cleaning power. In some formuations, C8 and C10 alcohol based nonionic surfactants are added as hydrotropes to partially replace and dissolve more power-horse C12-14 alcohol ethoxylates and anionics. However, detergency is compromised due to shorter hydrophobe length. 
This talk presents mid-range secondary alcohol ethoxylates as a new type of hydrotrope in highly-concentrated laundry liquid formulations. While exhibiting equivalent hydrotropic effect compared with C8 and C10 based alcohol alkoxylates, mid-range secondary alcohol ethoxylates does not compromise detergency. This material provides detergent formulators with a new choice of hydrotrope in highly-concentrated liquids.