Novel nonionic surfactants and processes to make them

Abstract

In nonionic surfactants that contain blocks of hydrophobic poly(alkylene oxide) polymer linked to blocks of hydrophilic poly(alkylene oxide) polymer, the biodegradability of the polymer is improved if the hydrophobic blocks are polymerized in the presence of carbon dioxide to add poly (alkylene carbonate) units into the hydrophobic block, in which the alkylene carbonate units make up from 1 to 40 weight percent of the hydrophobic polymer blocks. The resulting nonionic surfactants can have similar surfactant performance but improved biodegradability, as compared to related surfactants without alkylene carbonate units.

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