New amphoteric surfactants containing a 2-hydroxyalkyl group VIII. Synthesis and surface activities for amphoteric oligomeric or polymeric surfactants of β-alanine type

A series of amphoteric oligomeric and polymeric surfactants of poly(iminoethylene) (PIE) containing both a 2-hydroxyalkyl group (C12-HA or C14-HA) and a 2-carboxyethyl (CE) group as N-substituents was studied as follows: PIE having 1,000 or 20,000 molecular weight was treated with 1,2-epoxydodecane or 1,2-epoxytetradecane and subsequently methyl acrylate. The adducts were saponified to obtain amphoteric oligomeric surfactants (AO) or amphoteric polymeric surfactants (AP), poly{[N-(2-carboxyethyl)-N′-(2-hydroxyalkyl)]iminoethylene}. Various adducts of which the ratios of CE/HA for one unit of iminoethylene group are 2, 3.5, 8, 17 and 89 were synthesized.