POLYOX™

POLYOX™ family of sensory enhancers for cleansing & grooming products

A water soluble additive designed to enhance the density and fullness of the foam in shampoos, body washes and liquid soaps. It does synergistically enhance conditioning of dry and wet hair and skin in formulations containing cationic conditioning polymers.

These versatile polymers are available in a wide range of molecular weights, allowing their properties to be tailored for diverse applications across many industries. At their core, POLYOX™ materials are non-ionic, hydrophilic polymers that exhibit excellent lubricity, binding, thickening, and film-forming abilities when dissolved in aqueous solutions. 

One of the major uses for POLYOX™ is in personal care and cosmetic products. The polymers function as thickeners to increase viscosity, binders to enhance deposition on surfaces, lubricants for smooth application, and conditioning agents to improve skin feel. This makes them valuable ingredients in shampoos, lotions, creams, and other personal care formulations. In the construction industry, POLYOX™ grades are employed as water retention aids to regulate moisture levels in concrete and mortars. They also act as mortar modifiers to improve workability and rheology control agents to optimize flow properties. 

POLYOX™ finds applications in ceramic processing as binders and dispersants, as well as in metalworking fluids as lubricants and process aids. Their lubricating nature combined with water solubility makes them useful in this area. Other applications include uses as flocculants and coagulants in water treatment, as well as in mining reagents and oilfield chemicals. 

Across all its applications, POLYOX™ benefits from being low toxicity, biodegradable, and functional across a wide pH range. Dow manufacturers several different grades spanning a variety of molecular weights to meet the diverse needs of formulations and processes requiring polyethylene oxide chemistry. This versatile line of materials enables innovative solutions across industries by leveraging tunable polymer properties in aqueous systems.