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Study verifies effectiveness of conditioning agent against hair breakage
Shampoos and conditioners that contain the
new silicone conditioning agent ABIL® T Quat
60 from Evonik significantly reduce hair fiber
breakage. This is the result of a joint study by
Evonik‘s Care Specialties Business Line and
TRI/Princeton of Princeton (New Jersey,
USA), a leading independent research institute
largely devoted to the study of human
hair. ABIL® T Quat 60 also provides outstanding
conditioning features, such as easy combing
and a superior feel in both wet and dry
states. The conditioning agent is universally
suitable for all shampoos and conditioners.
Broken hair fibers are brittle, fray, and
lead to the formation of unsightly split ends.
As a result, they reduce the perception of hair
smoothness, lower shine, and hinder a fluid,
flowing motion. Because consumers rely on
hair care products to solve this problem, improving
the anti-hair breakage functionality
of shampoos and conditioners is an important
issue for the manufacturers of these products.
Evonik always substantiates its hair prod uct
solutions through many hair performance
tests. As the experts from Evonik and TRI/
Princeton have proven, ABIL® T Quat 60
reduces hair breakage in both shampoos and
conditioners. Their joint study examined the
breakage of hair that was treated with a
shampoo and a conditioner containing ABIL®
T Quat 60. The treated hair underwent defined
tests that are often used to make claims
regarding anti-breakage, strengthening, or
Nitrogen oxide reduction: Lines made from
VESTAMID® compounds satisfy requirements
Illustration of catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides
Evonik offers a variety of VESTAMID® polyamide
12 compounds that help automobile
manufacturers develop systems for reducing
nitrogen oxide in diesel vehicles. All the grades
offered by Evonik have performed excellently
in tests, and some are already in use.
A 32.5-percent aqueous solution of urea
serves as the reducing agent in systems developed
today by car makers for the selective
catalytic reduction (SCR) of nitrogen oxides
Hair breakage, as revealed by a
scanning electron microscope
from diesel engines. The VDA (German
Association of the Automotive Industry) has
registered this solution under the brand
AdBlue®.
At temperatures above 60 °C, water decomposes
AdBlue®, yielding carbon diox ide
and ammonia; the latter in turn reacts with
nitrogen oxides, forming water and nitro gen
and thus reducing the emission of nitrogen
oxides by about 90 percent.
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smoothness. All testing was performed on
hair damaged in the standard way, and in -
volved repeated combing with a custom-built
automated grooming device, followed by
counting the number of broken fibers. To ensure
statistical relevance, the experts evaluated
eight tresses per treatment. The results of
the experiment show that the shampoo and
conditioner formulations containing the new
conditioning ingredient ABIL® T Quat 60 provide
a dramatic anti-breakage benefit by 60%
for shampoo and 88% for conditioner.
The extreme effectiveness of ABIL® T
Quat 60 against hair breakage is a result of
its excellent substantivity to hair keratin. This
silicone conditioning agent also provides
impressive heat protection properties, longlasting
color protection, and a clean, silky skin
feel. It is highly suitable for use in conditioning
shampoos, dandruff shampoos and conditioners,
and even leave-in formulations and
body washes.
AdBlue® places heavy demands on lines in
SCR systems. They must be resistant to urea
and ammonia as well as any gas mixture flowing
back from the catalyst. Because the urea
solution is heated to up to 60 °C, but freezes
with expansion at –11 °C, good hydrolytic
resistance and bursting strength at higher
temperatures are essential, along with high
impact resistance and elasticity at low temper
atures.
Various VESTAMID® polyamide 12 compounds
satisfy all these requirements. Evonik
helps car makers develop their individual systems
by offering them a variety of products.
All VESTAMID® compounds have been subjected
to a recirculation test with AdBlue® at
60 °C and 80 °C (with external air temperatures
of 40 °C and 50 °C respectively) over
a period of 5,000 hours, to check for any
changes in their mechanical properties. All of
the grades tested have excellent values for
strain at break, bursting strength, and, in particular,
low-temperature impact strength at
–40 °C.
Of all the grades tested, VESTAMID®
LX9008 best satisfied all the requirements;
VESTAMID® L2140 and X7293 are already
being used in SCR systems.
elements35 Issue 2|2011