The selection of chemical resistant glove polymers for protection from specific solvent exposures in industry has long been a problem. Use of the most effective glove is important; such protective equipment is the last line of defense between the worker and exposure to chemicals that may cause dermatitis or systemic poisoning. Currently, 55,000 chemicals and approximately 10 polymers used in making gloves, offer many possible combinations. One obvious solution to the selection problem would be the systematic development of some predictor of permeation rate or breakthrough time given the polymer and permeant. That is the intent of this proposal. Previous work by others has indicated, that for some situations, if the solubility parameter (SP) of both polymer and permeant are nearly equivalent, permeation will be high, so that the greater DeltaSP (difference in SP), the lower the permeation rate. In many cases a polymer placed in a series of solvents would be most permeable to the solvent which was most absorbed by the polymer (i.e. most soluble). However, there are exceptions, probably resulting from several factors. The most important may be differences in the components that make up the three dimensional solubility parameter, i.e., hydrogen bonding forces, dipole forces, and dispersion forces. Although DeltaSP may be large, permeation may be significant if one of the above forces for both polymer and permeant is such that it increases the solubility for that polymer/permeant system. Other factors which may effect permeation rates include: crystallinity of polymer; size or shape of permeant molecules; mixtures of permeants; and use of fillers or plasticizers in polymers. It is hoped that a systematic effort to empirically determine the relationship of these factors for several polymers will permit the generation of a predictive model that can be validated.
