Liquid softening and anti-static nonionic detergent composition with soil release promoting PET-POET copolymer

A physically stable aqueous liquid detergent composition for cleaning and softening soiled fabrics and which can be added to the wash cycle of an automatic laundry machine, said composition comprising:

• (A) from about 10 to 50% by weight of a nonionic detergent selected from the group consisting of compounds of formulae (I) and (II):
• RO(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O).sub.n H (I)
• wherein R is a primary or secondary alkyl group of from about 8 to 22 carbon atoms and n is an average of from about 5 to 20;
• ##STR11## wherein R.sub.1 is a primary or secondary alkyl group of from 4 to 12 carbon atoms and m is an average of from about 5 to 20;
• (B) from about 1 to 20% by weight of a mono-higher alkyl quaternary ammonium compound of formulae (III) or (IV):
• ##STR12## wherein R.sub.2 is a long chain aliphatic radical of from about 10 to 22 carbon atoms,
• each of the R.sub.3 's in formula (III) and the R.sub.3 in formula (IV) are independently lower alkyl or hydroxy (lower alkyl), X is a water-soluble salt-forming anion, and x and y are each positive number of at least 1 and the sum x+y is from 2 to 15;
• (C) from about 1 to 20% by weight of a sulfosuccinamate detergent co mound of the formula (V):
• ##STR13## wherein Z is a monovalent salt forming cation, R.sub.4 is hydrogen, lower alkyl, carboxyl (lower alkyl) or 1,2-dicarboxy (lower alkyl), and
• R.sub.5 is an open chain hydrocarbon of from 10 to 22 carbon atoms;
• (D) from about 0.5 to 20% by weight of a water-soluble polyethylene terephthalate-polyoxyethylene terephthalate component, which component consists essentially of a water soluble fraction of a polyethylene terephthalate-polyoxyethylene terephthalate soil release promoting polymer dispersion;
• wherein said water-soluble fraction of a polyethylene terephthalate-polyoxyethylene terephthalate soil release promoting polymer is produced by forming a first 5-10% by weight aqueous dispersion of a polyethylene terephthalate-polyoxyethylene terephthalate copolymer having a weight average molecular weight of from about 8,000 to 60,000, wherein the polyoxyethylene has a molecular weight in the range of about 500 to 10,000, the molar ratio of polyethylene terephthalate units to polyoxyethylene terephthalate units is in the range of 2:1 to 6:1 and the proportion of ethylene oxide to phthalate moiety is at least 10:1, chilling said dispersion to produce a precipitate;
• removing said precipitate from said first aqueous dispersion to form second aqueous dispersion, and recovering said water-soluble fraction from said second aqueous dispersion;
• (E) up to about 10% by weight of an anionic surfactant selected from the group consisting of linear higher alkyl aromatic sulfonates, poly (lower alkoxy) higher alkanol sulfates, olefin sulfonates and paraffin sulfonates;
• (F) up to about 3% by weight of an optical brightener;
• (G) up to about 15% by weight of an ethoxylated amine;
• (H) up to about 5% by weight of an alkaline substance;
• (I) up to about 3% by weight of enzymes;
• and
• (J) aqueous solvent carrier.