Use of polyethylene glycol to control the spray pattern of sprayable liquid abrasive cleansers

Abstract

Liquid abrasive cleanser compositions sprayable through conventional manual trigger sprayers comprise a polyalkylene glycol, a nonionic surfactant, a pH adjusting agent, an abrasive, and water, wherein sprayability is made possible by the addition of the polyalkylene glycol. The compositions that are sprayable and acceptable as hard surface cleaners comprise polyethylene glycol as the polyalkylene glycol. The addition of polyethylene glycol having molecular weight of from about 4,000 to about 1,000,000 dramatically increases the sprayer output volume of liquid abrasive compositions having greater than or equal to 10 wt. % calcium carbonate. Addition of polyethylene glycol of molecular weight of from about 4,000 to about 100,000 converts otherwise non-sprayable liquid abrasive compositions into reliably sprayable compositions. Addition of PEG having molecular weight from about 4,000 to about 100,000 also provides a method for controlling the spray pattern of sprayable liquid abrasive compositions, in particular a method for optimizing the diameter of a conical spray pattern produced from a manual trigger sprayer having a conical spray nozzle.