Highly branched primary alcohol compositions, and biodegradable detergents made therefrom

摘要

Described is composition containing branched primary alcohols and the sulfates, alkoxylates, alkoxysulfates and carboxylates thereof exhibiting good cold water detergency and biodegradability. In the composition have branched primary alcohols average number of branches per molecule of 0.7 to 3.0 and contain methyl and ethyl branches too. The composition may contain less than 0.5 atom % of quaternary carbon atoms. The process for its manufacture is by skeletally isomerizing an olefin blend having at least 7 carbon atoms or by dimerising a C6 - C10 olefin, followed by conversion to an alcohol, as by way of hydroformylation and ultimately sulfation, alkoxylation or both to obtain a detergent surfactant. Useful isomerization catalysts include the zeolites and useful dimerisation catalysts include combination of a nickel carboxylate with an alkyl aluminium halids, or a combination of a nickel chelate with an alkyl aluminium alkoxide.