monohydric alcohols include those which have greater than about 7 carbon atoms the most preferred monohydric alcohols include those which have greater than about 15 carbon atoms like cetyl alcohol octadecyl alcohol and mixtures thereof e g tallow alcohol the monohydric alcohols that may be used in the present invention may be prepared by any conventional technique such as those which react acid chlorides with organometallic compounds the monohydric alcohols which may be used in this invention may also be purchased from suppliers like sigma there is no requirement for the substrate enhancing agent of this invention to be saturated and therefore such an agent may comprise sites of mono or polyunsaturation in an especially preferred embodiment the substrate enhancing agent of this invention has a weight average molecular weight of greater than about 180 or a boiling point greater than about 216 u00b0 c or both there is no limitation with respect to how the composition of the present invention is made as long as the desired components are mixed to produce a composition that may be applied to a substrate for example the substrate enhancing agent may be added to a mixing vessel along with water the amount of water in the composition that may be used to treat a substrate is greater than 5 0 and typically from about 70 0 to about 99 9 by weight of the total weight of the composition most preferably however water makes up from about 75 0 to about 97 0 by weight of total weight of the composition including all ranges subsumed therein the mixing of desired components may occur at conventional mixing rates the temperature and pressure during mixing may vary as long as the desired composition for improving substrate characteristics may be made typically however.