POLYAMINES CONTAINING UREA GROUPS, THEIR PREPARATION AND USE AS RETENTION MEANS, AND COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING THEM

Non-crosslinking, water-soluble polyamines which can be obtained by reacting (A) basic polyureas which have been prepared by condensation of ureas with polyamines containing at least three amino groups, of which at least one is a tertiary amino group, or with mixtures of these polyamines with aliphatic, araliphatic, cycloaliphatic or heterocyclic polyamines containing two primary or two secondary amino groups or one primary or one secondary amino group, and optionally with omega -aminocarboxylic acids containing at least three carbon atoms, or lactams thereof, (B) polyalkylenepolyamines of the general formula in which R denotes H or CH3, the indices y are in each case identical or different and denote the number 0 or 1 and x denotes a number from 4 to 2,500, or mixtures of these polyalkylenepolyamines with amines of the same general formula, but in which x denotes a number from 1 to 3, and (C) compounds which are polyfunctional towards amino groups, are used as agents for increasing the retention of fibres, fillers and pigments, for accelerating the drainage in the production of paper and for working up effluents from paper machines by filtration, sedimentation and flotation.