Liquid surfactant mixtures

Claim 1

A surfactant mixture which is liquid at room temperature based on polyalkoxylated alcohols of high surfactant power, characterized in that it consists of the following components, in percentages by weight based on the total weight of said mixture: (1) from about 50 to about 84% by weight straight-chain or branched chain ether alcohol corresponding to the following general formula R.sub.1 --O--[PO].sub.0-3 [EO].sub.6-8 H (I) wherein R 1 is a linear or branched C 9 -C 11 alkyl group, PO is the residue of the ring-opened propylene oxide, and EO is the residue of the ring-opened ethylene oxide; (2) from about 10 to about 40% by weight straight-chain or branched-chain ether alcohols corresponding to the following general formula R.sub.2 --O--[PO].sub.0-3 [EO].sub.3-6 H (II) wherein R 2 is the linear or branched alkyl group of a fraction predominantly containing from 12 to 15 carbon atoms, and PO and EO are residues as defined in (1); (3) from 0 to about 10% by weight ether polyols from the reaction of ethylene oxide with polyol reactants in a molar ratio of ethylene oxide to polyol reactants of 6-15:1, the polyol reactants in turn having been produced by reaction of (a) ethylene glycol, glycerol, trimethylol propane or neopentyl glycol with (b) C 12 -C 18 α-olefin epoxides or epoxidized oleyl or linoleyl alcohol in molar ratios of (a) to (b) of from about 1:1 to about 3:1; (4) from about 0.1 to about 10% by weight substituted amino alcohols selected from the group consisting of (A) alkyl or alkyl ether mono- or diethanolamines corresponding to the following general formulae R.sub.3 --[EO].sub.0-4 N(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 OH).sub.2 (III) R.sub.3 --[EO].sub.0-4 N-CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 OH (IV) wherein R 3 is a linear or branched C 12 -C 18 alkyl or alkenyl group, EO is the residue of the ring-opened ethylene oxide, (B) the reaction product of C 12 -C 18 α-olefin epoxides and mono- or diethanolamine, (C) the reaction product of epoxidized oleyl or linoleyl alcohol with mono- or diethanolamine, or (D) reaction products of the substituted amino alcohols of (A), (B) or (C) with ethylene oxide in molar ratios of from about 2 to about 12 moles ethylene oxide per mole of the substituted amino alcohol; and (5) lower carboxylic acid in such a quantity that the pH-value of a 1% by weight aqueous solution of the mixture as a whole is in the range of about 6 to about 7.5.