Glovebox

A common form of glovebox.

For the compartment in a vehicle's dashboard, see glove compartment.

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. Built into the sides of the glovebox are two gloves arranged in such a way that one can place their hands into the gloves and be able to perform tasks inside the box without breaking the seal or allowing potential damage to a worker's hands. Part or all of the boxes are usually transparent to allow one to see what they are manipulating. Two types of glove boxes exist. One type is designed to allow a person to work with a substance such as an open source of an actinide such as plutonium nitrate solution while the other is a box with 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.[1]. 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.

In the USA it is traditional for organometallic chemists to work using an argon filled glove box while in Europe it is traditional to work using 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.

Radioactive 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.

It is interesting to note that some glove boxes for radioactive work are under inert conditions, for instance at the ITU one nitrogen filled box contains an argon filled box. The argon box is fitted with a gas treatment system to keep the gas very pure to enable electrochemical experiments in molten salts.[2]

See also

• Desiccators are used for storing chemicals which are moisture-sensitive, but do not react quickly or violently with water
• Schlenk lines are used for manipulating oxygen- and moisture-sensitive chemicals as well.

External links

• American Glove Box Society
• Glove Box Technology Information
• GS Glovebox Systemtechnik GmbH
• HMI-Ingenieurtechnik, Berlin