Patent ID: 7002045

Claim:
An ortho ester surfactant of the formula where R is hydrogen or an aliphatic group with 1–7 carbon atoms; R 1 is hydrogen or an alkyl group with 1–5 carbon atoms; A 1 is an alkyleneoxy group with 2–4 carbon atoms, the number of ethyleneoxy groups being at least 50% of the total number of alkyleneoxy groups; n 1 is a number between 1 and 30; R 2 is an aliphatic group with 5–22 carbon atoms; A 2 is an alkyleneoxy group with 3–4 carbon atoms; n 2 is a number between 0–30, provided that when R 2 is an aliphatic group with 5–6 carbon atoms n 2 is at least 1; R 3 is selected from the group consisting of (A 1 ) n1 R 1 , (A 2 ) n2 R 2 and an alkyl group with 1–6 carbon atoms, where A 1 , n 1 , R 1 , A 2 , n 2 and R 2 have the same meaning as mentioned above; or a di- or polycondensate via any of the free hydroxy groups of the ortho ester.