Glove Box

A glovebox, also called a glove box, is a sealed container that is designed to allow one to manipulate objects while being in a different atmosphere from the object. more...

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Built into the sides of the glovebox are two gloves arranged in such a way that one can place his or her hands into the gloves and be able to perform tasks inside the box without breaking the seal or allowing potential injury to the worker. Part or all of the boxes are usually transparent to allow one to see what is being manipulated. Two types of glove boxes exist. One type is designed to allow a person to work with hazardous substances, such as radioactive materials or infectious disease agents. The other type is designed to contain a very high purity inert atmosphere (such as argon or nitrogen), which can be used for working with oxygen sensitive substances (such as lithium metal, which needs to be kept in argon).

Inert atmosphere work

The argon in a glove box is pumped through a series of treatment devices which remove solvent, water and oxygen from the gas. Heated copper metal (or some other finely divided metal) is commonly used to remove oxygen, this oxygen removing column is normally regenerated by passing a hydrogen/nitrogen mixture through it while it is heated, the water formed is passed out of the box with the excess hydrogen and nitrogen. It is common to use molecular sieves to remove water by adsorbing it in the molecular sieves' pores. Such a box is often used by organometallic chemists to transfer dry solids from one container to another.

An alternative to a using a glove box for air sensitive work is to employ Schlenk methods using a Schlenk line. One disadvantage of working in a glove box is that organic solvents will attack the plastic seals, as a result the box will start to leak and water and oxygen can then enter the box. Another disadvantage of a glove box is that oxygen and water can diffuse through the plastic gloves.

Inert atmosphere glove boxes are typically kept at a higher pressure than the surrounding air, so that any microscopic leaks are mostly leaking inert gas out of the box instead of letting air in.

Hazardous work

At the now-deactivated Rocky Flats Plant, which manufactured plutonium triggers, also called "pits", production facilities consisted of linked stainless steel gloveboxes up to 64 feet, or 20 meters, in length, which contained the equipment which forged and machined the trigger parts. The gloves were lead-lined. Other materials used in the gloveboxes included acrylic viewing windows and Benelex shielding composed of wood fiber and plastic which shielded against neutron radiation. Manipulation of the lead-lined gloves was onerous work.

Read more at Wikipedia.org