Silicone incorporation into an esterquat based fabric softener in presence of guar polymers

TL;DR

This study introduces a novel fabric softener formulation combining surfactant vesicles, guar polymers, and silicone oil, demonstrating stable incorporation without disrupting vesicle structure, promising for multipurpose textile applications.

Contribution

It presents a new industrial formulation integrating silicone oil into esterquat-based softeners using stabilizers like esterquat or guar gum, maintaining vesicle integrity and stability.

Findings

Silicone oil is stabilized in the formulation by surfactant and guar gum.

Vesicle structure remains unaffected by silicone oil incorporation.

Formulation stability is preserved with silicone oil addition.

Abstract

Fabric softeners are widely used to make clothes soft and impart nice smell. Household conditioners are water-based formulations consisting of quaternary ammonium surfactants assembled in vesicles. On the other hand, formulations used for textiles finishing are typically silicone oil emulsions. Here, these technologies are combined in a novel industrial formulation which contains both surfactant vesicles and silicone oil. In particular, we insert an amino-modified silicone oil into a recently developed softener comprising vesicles of an esterquat and guar polymers. Two strategies based on the use of esterquat or guar gum as stabilizers for the silicone incorporation in the fabric softener are proposed. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryoTEM), optical and fluorescent microscopy are applied to study the stability and the insertion of the silicone oil into the softener. It is shown that silicone oil is stabilized by the surfactant and the guar gum in nano- or micro-metric droplets. The vesicles structure and properties are not affected by the silicone oil while the formulation stability is preserved. These findings suggest that the proposed route for adding silicone oil into a topical conditioner is a promising route for multipurpose fabric softener development.