Seeking a stable activator for percarbonate in order to replace tetra-acetyl ethylenediammine (TAED).

TAED is the most common and used bleach activator for percarbonate technology. It is available from several suppliers, is relatively cheap, is well know how to stabilize it and how to incorporate it in laundry detergent formulation and last but not least performs strongly as stain remover. However, its limitations are also known: the main ones are linked to its poor dissolution profile. This is some cases makes it incompatible with certain types of fabrics, which may suffer from damages. Additionally, TEAD has limited reactivity with hydrogen peroxide at low temperatures, which makes it poorly efficient (combined with the previous issue) in short and cold washes.

What we are looking for

We would like to accomplish one of the two points below:

1. Identify an alternative material to TAED with a better solubility profile which has a similar stain removal performance, cost and environmental profile and can work as a substitute in a laundry detergent formulation
   
2. Identify an alternative grade of TAED with a significantly enhanced solubility and reactivity profile which has a similar stain removal performance, cost and environmental profile and can work as a substitute in a laundry detergent formulation

We will judge solutions in order of importance:

1. Industrial availability in EU (REACH registration is mandatory)
2. Cost and volumes availability
3. Performance in stain removal
4. Preferable more hydrophobic than TAED

Discarted solutions

What we are not interested in:

• Different sources of bleach other than percarbonate or hydrogen peroxide (e.g. peroxiacids and persalts)
• Chemicals which do not have a REACH registration
• Chemicals known or anticipated to have significantly adverse environmental or human safety profile