Surface treating compositions containing ammonioamidate compounds

Claim 1

A surface-treating composition suitable for hair and fabric softening consisting essentially of: a. a substituted ammonioamidate having the formula R.sub.1 CO N.sup.- N.sup.+ R.sub.2 R.sub.3 R.sub.4 or a cationic adduct thereof having the formula R.sub.1 CO NH N R.sub.2 R.sub.3 R.sub.4 .sup.+ X.sup.- wherein X is an anion; R 1 is an alkyl, phenyl, or alkylphenyl group having 1 to 25 carbon atoms; each of R 2 and R 3 is a methyl, ethyl, hydroxymethyl, hydroxyethyl or cyanoethyl group; and R 4 is either an alkyl having 1 to 25 carbon atoms or: ##EQU1## wherein each of R 5 and R 6 is a hydrogen or an alkyl group with 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and R 7 is a group defined as R 1 , benzyl or hydrogen, provided that at least one of R 1 and R 4 contains an alkyl group with at least 8 carbon atoms, said compound having a pKa value of from about 5 to about 7; and b. a pH buffering compound selected from the group consisting of: i. the alkali metal acid salts of phosphoric acid, and the polyphosphoric acids; ii. the acids and corresponding alkali metal salts of weak organic acids, and; iii. boric acid and borates; or mixtures thereof in an amount sufficient to maintain the pH of a solution containing component (a) at a level of from about 0.001 to about 0.5 percent by weight at less than, equal to, or not greater than 2 pH units above the pKa of component (a).