Patent GB-709941-A (GB)
Title: Process for the production of undecimposed cellulose oxidation products, including their alkali and alkaline earth metal salts, and the use of such products as detergents, soaking agents, cation-exchangers, and filter aids
IPC: B01J39/22
Filed: 1951-07-19
Abstract: Cellulose containing lignin or resin is subjected to a controlled oxidation until the product contains from 0.5 to 5.5 milligram equivalents of base binding groups per gram of dry oxidation product so as to obtain a product which is suitable for use as a washing, cleaning, soaking, or cation-exchange agent, or as a filter aid.  The product may be used for decreasing the pH in chemical processes without causing any harmful colouring of the materials treated.  The product has substantially the same molecular chain length as the original cellulose and substantially the same fibrous appearance. The cellulosic material may be wood, straw, flax scutchings, algae, sea weeds, sawdust, wood pulp, chips or shavings.  The oxidation product may be soluble in alkali solutions.  If a product of a light colour is desired, the raw material may be submitted to a preliminary boiling with water, digestion with acids, or treatment with a decolourizing agent. The oxidized material may be subjected to a bleaching treatment. Oxidation may be effected with oxides of nitrogen or with nitric acid.  After the oxidation, the excess of reagents and inorganic reaction products may be removed from the material before it is used for washing or other purposes.  Thus after oxidation with nitrogen dioxide or nitrogen monoxide the reaction product, which contains nitric acid, nitrous acid and nitrogen oxides, is washed with water containing no ions with which the cellulose product will form water-insoluble compounds, or with water containing such ions but also containing a sufficient concentration of hydrogen ions to prevent such insoluble compounds from being formed.  If desired the crude cellulose oxidation product may be added directly to soaking, cleaning, or detergent baths, provided that the potential alkalinity thereof is such that the ultimate pH of the baths is at least 5.  The crude product may be neutralized, or washed with a neutral salt solution, and then added to a detergent agent or bath.  Oxidation may be effected with nitrogen dioxide dissolved in an organic solvent, e.g. carbon tetrachloride, or with nitric acid and nitrogen dioxide or nitric acid and a nitrite in presence of water.  In an example, wood shavings are treated with nitrogen dioxide vapour at room temperature and in presence of air for 91 hours, and then washed.  The product has a content of 3.0 milligram equivalents of base-binding groups per gram of dry substance.  It dissolves in a 2 per cent. caustic soda solution.  In another example, wood sawdust is treated for 48 hours at room temperature with a solution of 5 kilograms of sodium nitrite in 11 litres of 65 per cent. nitric acid, until a product containing 2.0 milligram equivalents of base-binding groups per gram of dry substance is obtained.  Other examples describe the application of the oxidized cellulose product to washing, soaking, and base-exchanging operations.  Specifications 531,283, 605,367, and 653,702, [Group III], and U.S.A. Specification 2,232,990 are referred to.ALSO:Textiles are soaked or washed with the aid of compositions containing a lignin-or resin-containing cellulose material which has been subjected to controlled oxidation until the product contains 0.5-5.5 milligram equivalents of base-binding groups per gram of dry oxidation product (see Group IV(a)).  The product may be used in the form of an alkali-metal or other salt.  In an example, a cotton fabric is washed at 60 DEG C. in water of 1 French degree of hardness containing, per litre 0.8 grams of sodium soap, 6 gm. of sodium carbonate and 0.1 gm. of oxidized coniferous wood powder.  In another example, body, table, and kitchen linen is washed with a soapy liquid comprising a sodium soap with a fatty acid content of 85 per cent, sodium carbonate, sodium metasilicate, and a product obtained by oxidizing oak wood shavings with nitrogen dioxide.  Soiled household and body linen is soaked in water of 24 French degrees of hardness containing as soaking agent a mixture of sodium carbonate, water glass, and oxidized wood dust.  The laundry is then washed at 95 DEG C. in water containing a condensation product of the sodium salt of methyl taurine with the acid chlorides of olein, sodium carbonate, sodium sulphate, sodium trisilicate, and oxidized wood dust. Fillers, perfumes, colouring matter, fluorescent substances, bleaching agents such as perborates or percarbonates, or ethers, esters or oxidation products of higher polyoses may be included in the detergent compositions.ALSO:A lignin- or resin-containing cellulose material is subjected to controlled oxidation until the product contains from 0.5 to 5.5 milligram equivalents of base-binding groups per gram of dry oxidation product (see Group IV (a)), and the product is incorporated in soaking, washing and cleansing compositions.  The product may be used in the form of a salt, e.g. an alkali-metal salt.  Preferably the cellulose oxidation product is washed free from excess of reagents and other reaction products, formed during the oxidation treatment, before it is used as a washing agent. Fillers, perfumes, colouring matter, fluorescent substances, bleaching agents such as perborates and percarbonates, or derivatives of higher polyoses may be included in the compositions. In an example a cotton fabric is washed at 60 DEG C. in water of 1 French degree of hardness containing, per litre, 0.8 gm. of a sodium soap with a fatty acid content of 85 per cent. 6 gm. of sodium carbonate and 0.1 gm. of oxidized coniferous wood powder.  In another example body, table, and kitchen linen is washed with a soapy liquid comprising a sodium soap with a fatty acid content of 85 per cent, sodium carbonate, sodium metasilicate, and a product obtained by oxidizing oak wood shavings with nitrogen dioxide.  In another example a detergent for household purposes comprises the sodium salt of dodecyl toluene sulphonic acid, oxidized flax scutchings, sodium trisilicate, sodium perborate, sodium sulphate, the sodium salt of ethylenediamine - tetramethyl carboxylic acid, and the sodium salt of 4.41-bis-(2-chloro-4-ethanolamine) - 1.3.5 - triazyl (6) - diaminostil - bene-2.21\h -disulphonic acid.  In another example, soiled household and body linen is soaked in water of 24 French degrees of hardness containing, as soaking agent, a mixture of sodium carbonate, water glass and oxidized wood dust. The laundry is then washed at 95 DEG C. in water containing a condensation product of the sodium salt of methyl taurine with the acid chlorides of olein, sodium carbonate, sodium sulphate, sodium trisilicate and oxidized deciduous wood dust.  In another example a washing and cleansing agent comprises sodium salts of sulphonic acids of high molecular weight hydrocarbons, sodium salts of fatty acids of high molecular weight, common salt, sodium carbonate, sodium salt of carboxymethyl cellulose and oxidized straw.ALSO:An oxidation product of a lignum-containing or resin-containing cellulose material, in which oxidation has proceeded until the product contains from 0.5 to 5.5 milligram equivalents of base-binding groups per gram of dry oxidation product (see Group IV(a)), is used as a cationexchanging material or as a filter-aid.  When used as a filter-aid it simultaneously reduces the content of di- and poly-valent ions, such as calcium ions, in the filtrate.  In an example, oxidized deciduous wood shavings are put into a column 10 c.m. in height, and water of a hardness of 19 French degrees is passed through the column and thereby softened.  The base-exchanging material may be regenerated by a solution of common salt.