Guerbet Citrate Polyesters for Personal Care
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing citrate ester technologies do not provide polyester derivatives of mixed fatty esters, which are suitable for personal care applications due to their unique compatibility with water and skin feel.
Innovation Solution
The development of citrate polyesters formed by reacting guerbet alcohols with citric acid and crosslinking using water-soluble diols such as polyoxyethylene and polyoxyalkylene, resulting in low viscosity polymers that are well-suited for personal care applications, particularly for conditioning hair and skin.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional citrate esters are used, then they provide basic plasticizing and stabilizing functions, but they lack unique water compatibility and outstanding skin feel required for personal care applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates composite polyester structures by combining citric acid units with guerbet alcohol units and water-soluble diol crosslinkers. This composite approach integrates the hydrophobic citrate ester core with hydrophilic polyoxyethylene/polyoxyalkylene side chains, achieving both water compatibility and excellent skin feel in a single material system.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces local quality differentiation within the polymer structure by attaching water-soluble polyoxyethylene and polyoxyalkylene side chains to the hydrophobic citrate ester backbone. This creates regions with different properties: the core provides plasticizing and stabilizing functions while the side chains provide water solubility and skin-conditioning benefits.
2Reliability
If high molecular weight polymers are synthesized, then they provide better conditioning properties, but they increase viscosity making them less suitable for personal care formulations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the molecular weight and molecular architecture parameters of the polyester to achieve the desired balance. By controlling the degree of polymerization and the ratio of citric acid to guerbet alcohol units, the invention produces polymers with sufficient molecular weight for effective conditioning while maintaining low viscosity through the flexible guerbet alcohol chains and crosslinking structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The resulting citrate polyesters exhibit a unique feel and are effectively delivered from aqueous solutions, providing excellent skin and hair conditioning with a range of viscosities suitable for various applications.
Implementation Method 1
The esters are made by the reaction of fatty alcohols with citric acid
Implementation Method 2
crosslinked by water soluble diols, selected from the group polyoxyethylene, polyoxyalkylene and combinations thereof
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention has as its objective a series of citrate polyesters that have based upon guerbet alcohols reacted with citric acid, and crosslinked by water soluble diols, resulting in polymers with improved water solubility. These polymers have a very low viscosity when one considers the molecular weight, and are ideally suited to personal care applications due to their unique feel delivered from aqueous solution or emulsions.