Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Gloves

Jor - 12-1-2008 at 15:18

First of all I did use the search machine but couldnt really find an answer to my question.

My question is:
Do latex gloves offer protection to acids like nitric, hydrochloric and sulphuric? I know they offer no protection against acetic.

Second, what gloves would offer good protection against all of these including concentrated hydroxide, that are easily buyable OTC?

Joris

The_Davster - 12-1-2008 at 16:00

Latex offers enough resistance to 70% nitric, 37% HCl and 98% sulfuric that you will not be affected if you remove them quick after any spill. I am obsessive about taking gloves off after contact, so I do not know about longer contact. However hot 98% white fuming nitric will instantly dissolve latex on contact, hitting the skin below before you would have a chance to remove the glove.

not_important - 12-1-2008 at 16:31

You may find these lists useful

http://www.ansellpro.com/download/Ansell_7thEditionChemicalR...

http://www.microflex.com/ChemChartLatexNitrile.pdf

http://www.des.umd.edu/ls/gloves.html

A list of lists for gloves
http://www.ehs.ufl.edu/Lab/CHP/gloves.htm

hardware stores often carry neoprene and nitrile gloves, both of which offer resistance to chemicals that latex doesn't do so well with.

woelen - 13-1-2008 at 05:14

Another trick may be to use two gloves over each other. If you get any spills on the outer one, then discard that and then use the inner one as outer one next time and take a new one as the inner one. I use this for experiments with formic acid, thionyl chloride, sulphuryl chloride and conc. HNO3 and H2SO4. I do not use gloves at all with conc. HCl, conc. HBr, <50% H2SO4, <25% HNO3, any conc. of NH3 and NaOH. If I get a drop on my skin from those solutions, then I quickly rinse and no adverse effects occurred at all. The NaOH and to a lesser extent NH3 requires quite some rinsing though, I keep rinsing, until the fatty feeling has gone completely.

Liquid bromine I do not pour all at. I use a pasteur pipette to transfer that from its bottle.

Jor - 13-1-2008 at 05:25

And Wilco,
You mean latex here right?

If yes, then I'm sure I use latex as davster als indicates it works well. This is because my mother is a dentist and she can get hundreds off them for pretty much nothing.

[Edited on 13-1-2008 by Jor]

vulture - 13-1-2008 at 05:28

Quote:

Liquid bromine I do not pour all at. I use a pasteur pipette to transfer that from its bottle.


Be careful with that, the vapor pressure of bromine is sometimes sufficient to push itself out of the pipette.

If you want to be on the safe side, get those black neoprene gloves. They have very good chemical resistance.

[Edited on 13-1-2008 by vulture]

YT2095 - 13-1-2008 at 06:14

these are the exact sort I buy: http://www.cromwell.co.uk/BES9615220B

I really can`t fault them in anyway, and the price makes disposal not an issue.

woelen - 13-1-2008 at 06:37

Quote:
Originally posted by Jor
And Wilco,
You mean latex here right?

If yes, then I'm sure I use latex as davster als indicates it works well. This is because my mother is a dentist and she can get hundreds off them for pretty much nothing.

[Edited on 13-1-2008 by Jor]

Yes, I mean latex. Easy to obtain and cheap. But as mentioned by others, the really strong oxidizing stuff eats away latex quickly. But as long as you don't work with Br2, 90+% HNO3 and other similarly oxidizing nasties, I think a two-layer system as I described above is perfectly safe.

Finnnicus - 13-4-2013 at 22:26

Sorry to bring up an oldie, but nitrile gloves offer the most protection, except for with oxidizers? Nitric acid particularly.

Steve_hi - 14-4-2013 at 03:07

I asked about some glove at the local feed store and they phoned the company. The gloves they had in stock were not recomended for acids but they said they had neoprene gloves that were recomended for all acids so the hardware store ordered some.Neoprox I think she said

plante1999 - 14-4-2013 at 05:43

Glad they did, if one is to wear latex gloves, then he would be better not to wear any gloves. Everything go through latex, and could possibly melt it on your hand.

Something I learned with neoprene: the gloves don't like organic compound, my gloves was touching a motor oil spill for an hour or so, and was all undulated, like moist paper book.

BromicAcid - 14-4-2013 at 06:11

An updated sheet from not_important's post above:

http://www.ansellpro.com/download/Ansell_7thEditionChemicalR...

This is what we use where I work. Impress upon yourself that there is no perfect glove, only situational solutions unless you're willing to shell out for laminate gloves which can be a pain to work in.

Remember gloves are personal protective equipment (PPE) they are only meant to take over when containment/engineering measures fail. They are not intended for immersion or prolonged contact unless they specifically state that function. Note that even glove with excellent chemical resistance on that chart can let material through on soaking and that gloves with good chemical resistance let through "6 to 50 eyedropper sized drops per hour" which may be plenty to kill you depending on the chemical.

[Edited on 4/14/2013 by BromicAcid]

plante1999 - 14-4-2013 at 06:29

Wait what? There is polyvinyl alcohol glove... Oups I got a drop of the highly corrosive substance, dihyrogen monoxide. I must imediatly remove my glove?

No seriously, I would not even consider a glove that dissolve in water.

Vargouille - 14-4-2013 at 07:47

On the other hand, PVA has good resistance on some common organic solvents, like chloroform, where others fail.

Pyro - 14-4-2013 at 09:47

Though those charts can be misleading! they are meant for people who work with those chemicals all day and come in contact with them a lot during that time.

I personally prefer latex as its white, all stains show right up. Vulture, I've had that when I was wearing latex gloves, a drop got on them while pipetting, I immediately removed it, and because I was curious I left it on the table. about half an hour later I came back and looked and smelled it, it smelt very strange, not like Br2 at all, but there was no penetration.

I have recently bought 2 pairs of these:
http://www.hinmeijer.nl/product/571720/Nitopren_174_handscho...
14,22 eur for 2 pairs isn't bad at all