Crystalline mixtures of capillary active salts and processes for preparing same

A mixture of salts of formula RO(C2H4O)nCH2COOM where R is C8- 14 alkylene, M is a cation and n is 1-5 is prepared either by treating a polyether mixture of general formula RO(C2H4O)nH (A) with chloroacetic acid or oxidizing a polyether mixture of formula RO(C2H4O)n+1H (B) and neutralizing the acid so produced. (A) and (B) may be prepared from an alcohol having 8-14 carbon atoms, e.g. lauryl alcohol, and 2-3 moles of ethylene oxide. The oxyethylated product may be fractionally distilled optionally under reduced pressure to remove any unchanged alcohol and products in which n is greater than 5. The unchanged alcohol may be reused. M may be an alkali metal. The product may be recrystallized from ethanol. In the examples the following alcohols are disclosed: lauryl alcohol containing 30% myristyl alcohol, decyl alcohol, dodecyl alcohol and dodecyl alcohol containing 30% myristyl alcohol. After treatment with ethylene oxide, distillation and treatment with chloroacetic acid, these are acidified with HCl and neutralized with NaOH, KOH or NH4OH.