US 7,071,155 B2Granted

Non-polymer thickening agent and cleaning composition

AssigneeEoclab, Inc.

InventorsGreg G. Griese, Mike J. Bartelme, Victor Fuk-Pong Man, Ed D. Sowle

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A non-polymer thickening medium, and the inclusion of such a non-polymer thickening medium in a cleaning composition. In some embodiments, the non-polymer thickening medium includes a sparingly water soluble surfactant, and an organic solvent including an OH group, an ether group, or both an OH group and an ether group. At lease some of the two components of the thickening medium interact with each other thicken a composition to which they are added. In some embodiments, the thickening medium components are included within a cleaning composition which further includes a source of alkalinity, and a polar carrier. Some other embodiments relate to methods of making, and methods of using such thickening medium and cleaning compositions.

Claims28

Dependent claims

An alkali cleaning composition comprising:

0.5–20 weight percent of a sparingly water soluble surfactant comprising a linear or branched, substituted or unsubstituted alkyl benzene sulfonate, or a derivative thereof, the sparingly water soluble surfactant having water, solubility in the range of about 0.01 to about 15 weight percent in water;
1–20 weight percent of an organic solvent comprising a water soluble glycol ether;
1–40 weight percent of an alkali metal hydroxide or an alkaline earth metal hydroxide as an alkalinity source, wherein the alkalinity source is present in a molar excess with respect to the sparingly water soluble surfactant;
and
a polar carrier;
wherein the cleaning composition is a liquid and the combination of sparingly water soluble surfactant, organic solvent, alkalinity source, and polar carrier interact to thicken the composition and provide the composition with a viscosity in the range of about 200 to about 1000 centipoise without inclusion of additional thickening agents.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.