Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft

Klaus Henning

Joachim Kandler

Karl Merkenich

Wilhelm Vogt

Eberhard Auer

Gunter Lenz

Builders for detergent and cleaning compositions. The builders comprise copolymers made from .alpha.-hydroxyacrylic acid and acrylic acid. The copolymers contain between 9 and 85 mol % of acrylic acid and have a relative viscosity within the range 0.05 and 1.0, determined on a 1 weight % solution of the copolymers in aqueous 2N-sodium hydroxide solution, at 20.degree. C.

Builders for detergent and cleaning compositions

The invention provides builders for detergent and cleaning compositions. The builders comprise oligomers and/or polymers containing carboxylic and hydroxylic groups -- the latter groups being partially lactonized, if desired -- and a predominant proportion of C--C bonds in their principal chain. The oligomers and/or polymers are produced by hydrolyzing halogenated copolymers which have substantially between 5 and 60 weight % of halogen therein and a principal chain based on structural units, in any desirable sequential arrangement, of the following general formulae I and II or I and III ##EQU1## in which X, Y and Z stand for a hydrogen and/or halogen atom with the proviso that at least one of the X, Y and Z substituents stands for a halogen atom, R stands for a carboxy-halide radical, a carboxylic group, ester group, nitrile group or anhydride group, and the mole fraction m stands for a number greater than zero and smaller than 1.

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Hurth, Germany

Klaus Henning