Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine is an amphoteric surfactant derived from the fatty acids of coconut oil. It is known for its mild cleansing properties, creamy foam generation, and compatibility with a wide pH range. This ingredient is commonly used in cosmetic and personal care products due to its ability to improve skin tolerance and stabilize foam in cleansing formulations.
Chemical Composition and Structure
Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine is an amphoteric compound with both positive and negative charge groups, derived from lauric acid (from coconut oil), amines, and sultaine groups. This unique chemical structure provides gentle cleansing action, stability in complex formulations, and the ability to reduce the potential irritation of other surfactants.
Physical Properties
It appears as a clear to slightly opalescent, viscous liquid, water-soluble, with a soft, creamy foam profile. It is compatible with a wide pH range (acidic to basic), making it versatile for various product types.
Production Process
Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine is produced through a chemical reaction between lauric acid derivatives (from coconut oil) and aminopropylamine, followed by the addition of a sultaine group. The process is designed to ensure a stable and pure final product.
Applications
Medical: Used in mild cleansers for sensitive skin or specific dermatological conditions.
Cosmetics: Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine is widely used in shampoos, body washes, facial cleansers, and bath products for its gentle cleansing, foam stabilization, and skin compatibility.
INCI Functions
Antistatic agent. Static electricity build-up has a direct influence on products and causes electrostatic adsorption. The antistatic ingredient reduces static build-up and surface resistivity on the surface of the skin and hair.
Hair conditioning agent. A large number of ingredients with specific purposes can co-exist in a hair shampoo: cleansers, conditioners, thickeners, mattifying agents, sequestering agents, fragrances, preservatives, special additives. However, the indispensable ingredients are the cleansers and conditioners as they are necessary and sufficient for hair cleansing and manageability. The others act as commercial and non-essential auxiliaries such as: appearance, fragrance, colouring, etc. Hair conditioning agents have the task of increasing shine, manageability and volume, and reducing static electricity, especially after treatments such as colouring, ironing, waving, drying and brushing. They are, in practice, dispersing agents that may contain cationic surfactants, thickeners, emollients, polymers. The typology of hair conditioners includes: intensive conditioners, instant conditioners, thickening conditioners, drying conditioners.
Skin conditioning agent. It is the mainstay of topical skin treatment by restoring, increasing or improving skin tolerance to external factors, including melanocyte tolerance. The most important function of the conditioning agent is to prevent skin dehydration, but the subject is rather complex and involves emollients and humectants.
Surfactant - Foam booster. It has the effect of introducing gas bubbles into the water and affects the cleaning process by helping to spread the cleanser. Since sebum has an inhibiting effect on the bubble, more foam is produced in the second shampoo.
Surfactant - Suspending agent. Cosmetic or pharmaceutical suspensions are known to be thermodynamically unstable and it is therefore essential to include in the formulation a suspending agent capable of dispersing any sedimented particulates and reducing the rate of sedimentation. The presence of this agent increases the consistency of the suspension medium and exerts a protective colloidal action with a surfactant action.
Viscosity control agent. It controls and adapts, Increasing or decreasing, viscosity to the required level for optimal chemical and physical stability of the product and dosage in gels, suspensions, emulsions, solutions.
Molecular Formula C20H42N2O5S
Molecular Weight 422.6 g/mol
CAS 68139-30-0 19223-55-3
UNII VPE363894V
EC Number 242-893-1
DTXSID40893392
Synonyms:
Softazoline LSB-R
References__________________________________________________________________________
Vu T, Reynolds G, Hutton HD, Kasting GB, Koenig P. Rheology Control Using Nonionic Cosurfactants and pH Titration in an Amino Acid-Derived Surfactant Composition. Langmuir. 2021 Oct 26;37(42):12327-12334. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c01802.
Abstract Sulfate-based formulations can be easily thickened by adding salt or amphoteric cosurfactants. However, sulfate-free and amino acid-based surfactants cannot. We explored an alternative thickening mechanism by studying the thickening effect of adding nonionic cosurfactants to a mixture of an amino acid-based surfactant, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate (SLSar), and a zwitterionic cosurfactant, cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine (CAHS) at a 6:9 weight ratio. To characterize the formulations, we combined traditional rheometry with a state-of-the-art mesoscopic analysis of micelle dynamics obtained via diffusing wave spectroscopy. In addition, the formulations were characterized by cross-polarized light microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The cosurfactants studied included fatty alcohols, alkanediols, a fatty acid, and fatty alcohol ethoxylates (CnE3 and CnE6). Adding the nonionic cosurfactants increased the zero-shear viscosity up to 350 times the viscosity of the no-additive system at neutral pH. When pH titration was incorporated as a second thickening mechanism, the viscosity maximum was lower than the no-additive mixture. Furthermore, the pH of the viscosity maximum was shifted to higher pH for all systems except for CnE6, which shifted the maximum to lower pH. The nonionic amphiphiles also broadened the viscosity maximum, particularly in the C10OH system. Consequently, the C10OH system had a more favorable profile for development as a practical thickening system for an amino acid-based cleanser. Analysis according to the Zou and Larson micelle dynamics model revealed that the broadening effect was associated with substantially longer breakage times for the C10OH system (4-208 ms) compared to the no-additive system (4-38 ms).
Nieto-Alvarez DA, Martínez-Magadán JM, Cerón-Camacho R, Servín-Nájera AG, Cisneros-Dévora R, Zamudio-Rivera LS. Density Functional Theory and UPLC/MS/ESI+ studies of the zwitterionic surfactant-Na+ pair formation. J Mol Graph Model. 2019 Sep;91:204-213. doi: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2019.06.017. Epub 2019 Jun 21. PMID: 31265937.
Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine 
