Thickened aqueous cleaning compositions

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Although compositions such as those disclosed above have been found suitable for their intended purposes, there has been found to remain a need for thickened aqueous cleaning compositions for use in a variety of applications and which offer improvements either on the basis of performance, cost or ease of manufacture.
More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide such improved thickened aqueous cleaning compositions and methods of use therefor.
It is a related object of the invention to provide such thickened aqueous cleaning compositions which are stable over a typical storage shelf life and/or which are capable of formulation at relatively low cost.
It is a more specific object of the invention to provide a thickened aqueous cleaning composition and methods of use wherein the composition comprises an alkyl ether sulfate surfactant forming about 0.
1 to about 10% by wt.
of the composition, a solvent selected from the class consisting of terpene derivatives including a functional group and tertiary alcohols, the solvent forming from about 0.
01 to about 10% by wt.
of the composition, and an electrolyte component in an amount effective to enhance thickening by the alkyl ether sulfate surfactant and solvent.
It is broadly contemplated that the electrolyte component forms about 0.
1 to about 30% by wt.
of the composition.
In one embodiment of the invention as defined above, the alkyl ether sulfate surfactant has an alkyl component with about 8-18 carbons and an alkylene oxide component, preferably ethylene oxide, with about 1-4 alkylene oxide monomers.
The alkyl component is preferably a linear chain and also more preferably contains about 12-16 carbons.
The alkyl ether sulfate surfactant is an essential component of the thickening agent together with the solvent specified above, the combination of the alkyl ether sulfate surfactant and solvent surprisingly providing effective thickening for such electrolyte solutions which cannot be achieved by other surfactants even in combination with the same solvents