Polyvinyl quaternaries

DETAILED DESCRIPTION We claim: 1.
The process for preparing polyvinyl quaternary amines which comprises reacting an aqueous solution of a tertiary amine with ethylene dihalide in the mol ratio of about 2 to 1 at a temperature of at least about 100.
degree.
C.
for a time sufficient to produce a vinyl quaternary amine, the tertiary amine being of a structure such that under the conditions of the reaction it is capable of both adding to one end of the ethylene dihalide and causing dehydrohalogenation to yield a vinyl quaternary amine, and continuing the reaction so that the vinyl quaternary amine is further polymerized to form the polyvinyl quaternary, the amine being a dimethyl aliphatic hydrocarbon amine where the aliphatic hydrocarbon group has 6 to 30 carbon atoms.
2.
The process of claim 1 where the tertiary amine is where R is alkyl of 8-20 carbon atoms and the temperature is 100.
degree.
to 3.
The process of claim 2 where the tertiary amine is ##STR7## where R is an alkyl group having about 12 to 18 carbon atoms, the reaction temperature is 120.
degree.
to 180.
degree.
C.
, and the solvent component of the aqueous solution is water or water in combination with a water miscible alcohol.
4.
The process of claim 1 where the ethylene dihalide is ethylene dichloride.
5.
The process of claim 2 where the ethylene dihalide is ethylene dichloride.
6.
The process of claim 3 where the ethylene dihalide is ethylene dichloride.




Description:
When ethylene dihalides react with tertiary amines, one expects the following reaction to occur which yields diquaternaries R.
sub.
3 N + XCH.
sub.
2 CH.
sub.
2 X .
fwdarw.
R.
sub.
3 N.
sup.
.
sym.
CH.
sub.
2 CH.
sub.
2 N.
sup.
.
sym.
R.
sub.
3 .
multidot.
2X.
sup.
.
crclbar.
(Eq.
I) we have now discovered that the above reaction occurs more readily with certain amines than with other amines.
For example, although pyridines yield diquaternaries according to Equation I in high yields, amines such as dimethylalkyl amines tend to yield vinyl quaternaries which then polymerize to yield polyvinyl quaternaries according to the following equation: ##STR1## The overall reaction is ##STR2## In addition, we have discovered that certain amines such as triethyl amine, tributylamine, dimethyl aniline, etc