Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to new builder salts of alkyloxysuccinic acids, alkyloxyhydroxysuccinic acids, alkylthiosuccinic acids, alkylthiohydroxysuccinic acids, and the sulfoxide and sulfone derivatives of the alkylthiosuccinic and alkylthiohydroxysuccinic acids which do not contain phosphorus or nitrogen and more specifically to detergent compositions containing these new builder compositions which are biodegradable and have similar detergent-building properties as existing builders.
The builder salt compounds of the alkyloxysuccinic acids, alkyloxyhydroxysuccinic acids, alkylthiosuccinic acids, alkylthiohydroxysuccinic acids, and the sulfoxide and sulfone derivatives of the alkylthiosuccinic and alkylthiohydroxysuccinic acids of the present invention can be generally represented as follows: ##STR2## wherein Z is selected from the group consisting of O, S, SO and SO.sub.2 ; X is H or OH; R is an alkyl radical having 6 to 30 carbon atoms and M is selected from the group consisting of alkali metal, ammonium, and substituted ammonium cations.
These compounds have one or more asymmetric carbon atoms and therefore can exist in optically active forms as well as optically inactive mixtures (racemates). For purposes of this invention the compounds as defined are intended to include all of the stereoisomeric forms and mixtures thereof, e.g., d, l and dl for one asymmetric carbon and d, d', l, l', dl and d'l' for two dissimilar asymmetric carbons. A complete discussion of stereoisomeric forms will be found in Fieser and Fieser, "Organic Chemistry", Reinhold Publishing Co., 1956, Chapter 11, pages 249-294 which is incorporated herein as a reference.