{"id":14571,"date":"2023-07-26T06:05:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T12:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ulprospector.com\/knowledge\/?p=14571"},"modified":"2023-10-04T14:20:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T20:20:05","slug":"pcc-polyquaterniums-in-cosmetic-formulas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/14571\/pcc-polyquaterniums-in-cosmetic-formulas\/","title":{"rendered":"Polyquaterniums in Cosmetic Formulas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"person Technology in the field of cosmetic chemistry is well understood which makes it difficult to develop impactful innovations. From a performance standpoint, there isn\u2019t much room for innovation in the areas of surfactants or emollients. Sure, there are still new compounds to try, but most of the main lines of investigation have been done and it\u2019s unlikely we will find new compounds that lead to consumer perceptible differences for these classes of molecules. Consumers are just not very observant.<\/p>\n

But there is still room for new molecule innovation in the cosmetic industry. The most significant innovations will most likely be found in the area of polymers. Currently, our command over polymers is primitive being able to only swap out monomers and adjust ratios. However, much more complex molecules are possible and could prove useful in the creation of cosmetic products. In fact, all of biology is based on proteins and enzymes which are just biopolymers made with different sequences of amino acid monomers.<\/p>\n

One kind of polymer that has already found great use in cosmetic formulating are Polyquaterniums<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These versatile polymers offer a variety of benefits when incorporated into cosmetic formulas.\u00a0 Let’s look at the different Polyquats available and discuss some of their properties, functions and uses.<\/p>\n

Polyquaternium chemistry<\/h2>\n

Polyquats<\/a> are a class of cationic polymers used in both skincare and hair care formulas. They can be derived by chemically modifying natural polymers, such as cellulose, guar or chitosan, through the addition of quaternary ammonium compounds side chains. They can also be created from various organic monomers like acrylamide and diallyldimethylammonium chloride, vinylpyrrolidone and diallyldimethylammonium chloride and others.<\/p>\n

However they are made, the resulting polymers will have a long carbon chain with a number of positive charged groups that allows them to bond with the negatively charged surfaces of hair and skin. This characteristic helps the polymer stay on the surface, set up a film and resist rinse-off.<\/p>\n

How it works<\/h3>\n

One of the primary formulation challenges in making hair and skin products is that you need a way to ensure that beneficial ingredients stay on the surface even after the rinse-off phase. Strangely, some shampoos contain ingredients like proteins, vitamins, and oils which are simply washed away during use. Certainly, those might work as good claims ingredients but without a mechanism by which they deposit on the surface,\u00a0 most of it just ends up down the drain.<\/p>\n

However, polyquaternium<\/a> compounds don’t have this problem because they do have two mechanisms through which they can remain on hair even through the washing and rinsing phase. One method is through electrostatic bonding and another is through the dilution\/deposition mechanism.<\/p>\n

Electrostatic bonding is easy enough to understand. The Polyquat molecules contain numerous positive charges and they are attracted to the negatively charged sites on the surface of hair. This bonding inhibits rinse-off.<\/p>\n

The dilution\/deposition mechanism works like this.<\/p>\n