| abstract |
The invention relates to a method for producing surfactant alcohols and surfactant alcohol ethers by the derivatization of olefins comprising between 10 and 20 C atoms or the derivatization of olefin mixtures and optionally by subsequent alkoxylation. The method is characterized in that a) a C4 olefin mixture with a ratio of 1-butene/2-butene of = 1.2 is subjected to metathesis, b) olefins comprising between 5 and 8 C atoms are isolated from the metathesis mixture, c) the isolated olefins are subjected individually or as a mixture to a dimerization, to form olefin mixtures comprising between 10 and 16 C atoms, d) the olefin mixture thus obtained, optionally after fractionation, is subjected to derivatization to form a mixture of surfactant alcohols and e) the surfactant alcohols are optionally alkoxylated. The olefin mixture obtained in the dimerization process contains a high proportion of branched components and less than 10 wt. % of compounds that contain a vinylidene group. The invention also relates to the use of said surfactant alcohols and surfactant alcohol ethers for producing surfactants by glycosylation or polyglycosylation, sulphation or phosphation. |