Microcapsules
AssigneeThe Procter & Gamble Company
InventorsJean-Pol Boutique, Walter Broeckx, Jonathan Stonehouse, Walter Vanderveken, Anna-Louise McConnachie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Microcapsule for use in a liquid detergent composition, the microcapsule having a core and a polymeric polyanion-polycation complex shell wherein the polyanion component is capable of gelling in the presence of calcium and has a storage modulus when gelled with 0.05 moles/litre of calcium of less than about 150 Pa at an angular frequency of about 0.5 rad/s and a polyanion concentration of about 3.8% by weight at 25° C. The invention also relates to a process for making the microcapsules, liquid detergents comprising the microcapsules and cleaning methods using the liquid detergents.
Claims17
A microcapsule for use in a liquid detergent composition, the microcapsule having a core and a polymeric polyanion-polycation complex shell having a polyanion component, wherein the polyanion component is capable of gelling in the presence of calcium and has a storage modulus when gelled with 0.05 moles/litre of calcium of less than about 150 Pa at an angular frequency of about 0.5 rad/s and a polyanion concentration of about 3.8% by weight at 25° C.
A microcapsule for use in a liquid detergent composition, the microcapsule having a core and a polymeric polyanion-polycation complex shell having a polyanion component, wherein the polyanion component is alginate having a weight ratio of mannuronic to guluronic units (M:G ratio) of at least about 1:1.
A process for making a microcapsule for use in a liquid detergent composition, the microcapsule having a core and a polymeric polyelectrolyte complex shell, the process comprising the steps of:
- a. forming a first solution comprising a polyanion component, the polyanion component being capable of gelling in the presence of calcium and has a storage modulus when gelled with 0.05 moles/litre of calcium of less than about 150 Pa at an angular frequency of about 0.5 rad/s and a polyanion concentration of about 3.8% by weight at 25° C.;
- b. forming droplets of the first solution;
- and
- c. introducing the droplets into a second solution comprising a polymeric polycation component capable of reacting with the polyanion component to form a complex at the surface of the droplets.
A laundry liquid detergent comprising a suspension of visibly distinctive microcapsules in a liquid carrier wherein the microcapsules have a residuality index of less than 1, according to the stressed conditions washing test defined herein.
A method of cleaning laundry, without leaving visible residues on the clean laundry, in a washing machine, under hard water conditions, comprising the step of contacting the laundry with water of a hardness of at least 2 mmol/l and adding a liquid detergent comprising from about 0.3% to 3% by weight of the liquid detergent of microcapsules having a core and a polymeric polyanion-polycation complex shell wherein the liquid detergent provides from about 10 to about 2000 ppm of builder in the wash liquor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.