abstract |
A surface active mixture comprising: (A) from about 1 to about 50% by weight of an anionic surfactant having one or two lipophilic groups and having from 1 to 22 carbon atoms and a polar group selected from the group consisting of carboxylate, sulfate and sulfonate groups; (B) from about 0.5 to about 15% by weight of an alkyl glycoside of the formula R(G)x, wherein R is a linear saturated alkyl radical having from 8 to 22 carbon atoms and (G)xis a glycoside or oligoglycoside unit with a degree of oligomerization x of 1 to 10; (C) from about 0.1 to about 7% by weight of a nitrogen-containing copolymer having a molecular weight of from about 15,000 to about 1,500,000 wherein said copolymer is comprised of: (i) from about 99.5 to about 45 mole-% of units derived from vinyl pyrrolidone, (ii) from at 0.5 to about 50 mole-% of units derived from a monomer corresponding to formula (I): CH2=CHR1-COOR2-NR3R4 (I) R1 is hydrogen or methyl, R2 is a C1-20 alkylene group and each of R3 and R4 is independently a C1-4 alkyl group and, (iii) from 0 to about 50 mole-% of units derived from at least one ethylenically unsaturated copolymerizable monomer different from (i) and (ii), and; (D) from about 28 to about 98.4% by weight of water with the proviso that: (a) the pH value of the mixture Is in the range from 3 to 7 so that the copolymer (C) is present in temporarily cationic form, (b) the sum of components (B) and (C) is no greater than the content of component (A) and, (c) the mixture is free from nitrogen-containing copolymers wherein the nitrogen atoms are present at least partly in permanent cationic form. |