Reaction products of epsilon-caprolactam with vicinal hydroxyalkylamines and alkoxylation products thereof

A process for the prevention of the growth of microorganisms selected from the group consisting of gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, fungi and algae in an aqueous environment, which consists essentially of contacting said microorganisms with an amount effective to prevent the growth of said microorganisms of a reaction product of .epsilon.-caprolactam with vicinal hydroxyalkamines which are derived from terminal mono-olefins or mixtures of mono-olefins with statistically distributed nonterminal double bonds and possible adducts thereof with epoxyalkanes having the overall formula:

• ##STR30## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are members selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl having 1 to 16 carbon atoms with the proviso that the sum of the carbon atoms in R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 is from 8 to 16 when R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are alkyl and from 8 to 16 when R.sub.1 or R.sub.2 is hydrogen, R.sub.3 is a member selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 5 carbon atoms and ##STR31## where m is an integer from 2 to 10, and R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 are members selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, EPA is an epoxide selected from the group consisting of ethylene oxide, propylene oxide and glycide, x is a number representing mols of from 1.5 to 3.5 and y is a number representing mols of from 0 to 5;
• and the organic and inorganic acid salts thereof.

A surfactant mixture composition consisting essentially of at least one surface-active compound selected from the group consisting of anionic surface-active compounds, nonionic surface-active compounds and zwitterionic surface-active compounds, in combination with a reaction product of .epsilon.-caprolactam with vicinal hydroxyalkamines which are derived from terminal mono-olefins or mixtures of mono-olefins with statistically distributed nonterminal double bonds and possible adducts thereof with epoxyalkanes having the overall formula:

• ##STR32## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are members selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl having 1 to 16 carbon atoms with the proviso that the sum of the carbon atoms in R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 is from 8 to 16 when R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are alkyl and from 8 to 16 when R.sub.1 or R.sub.2 is hydrogen, R.sub.3 is a member selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 5 carbon atoms and ##STR33## where m is an integer from 2 to 10, and R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 are members selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, EPA is an epoxide selected from the group consisting of ethylene oxide, propylene oxide and glycide, x is a number representing mols of from 1.5 to 3.5, and y is a number representing mols of from 0 to 5;
• and the organic and inorganic acid salts thereof;
• the weight ratio of said at least one surface-active compound to said reaction product being from 50:1 to 2:1.