Nitrile gloves are manufactured from a rubber known as acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber and are free from latex proteins. These gloves specifically suit those individuals who are latex-sensitive. Gloves made from nitrile are available in different thicknesses and types such as ambidextrous examination type and in hand specific styles, such as lined and unlined. Nitrile rubber is also known as Buna-N, Perbunan, or NBR. It is a synthetic rubber copolymer of acrylonitrile (ACN) and butadiene. Nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) is a family of unsaturated copolymers of 2-propenenitrile and various butadiene monomers (1, 2-butadiene and 1, 3-butadiene). The physical and chemical properties vary depending on the polymer’s composition and the polymer shows excellent resistance to oil, fuel, and other chemicals. This makes NBR a useful material for manufacturing disposable lab, cleaning, and examination gloves. A recent improvised form of (NBR) is the Carboxylated Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (XNBR). In this polymer, there are additional carboxyl groups R-COO- on the double bond of the butadiene part besides the sulfur bridges that make ionic cross links with zinc Zn++ to give improved physical properties as compared to a non-carboxylated Nitrile rubber.
Specific Advantage: These gloves are three times more puncture-resistant than natural rubber gloves. Hence, these nitrile gloves also offer protection from most solvents and oils, and best suited for protection from abrasion, cut and punctures. It is imperative to note in this context that needlestick and sharps injuries are the most common method of transmitting blood-borne pathogens like Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus and HIV between patients and the health care professionals.
Innovations
Cleanroom Gloves
Nitrile is a ‘clean’ material which technically indicates that the material is not subject to shedding and is exceptionally low in residual chemicals. These gloves may be readily sterilized by irradiation without any reduction in physical characteristics and thus, these gloves are rapidly taking over as the material of choice in Cleanrooms like research labs.
Accelerator Free Gloves
Accelerators are chemicals used in nitrile gloves manufacture to ensure a rapid vulcanisation of the film and are responsible for many of the positive characteristics of the glove including its strength, elasticity and barrier performance. These accelerators have been off late linked to Type IV, delayed hypersensitivity reaction leading to allergic contact dermatitis. Most of these accelerator chemicals fall in three basic groups of chemicals, namely, thiurams, thiazoles and dithiocaramates. Low Accelerator Examination gloves or Accelerator Free Gloves are recent innovations in the industry. Low Accelerator Gloves are manufactured under optimized conditions that utilize exceptionally low levels of accelerator and are available in the market. A technology that utilizes a pre-treatment of the dip mix eliminating the requirement of an accelerator is in the development stage towards production of accelerator free gloves.
Biodegradable Disposable Glove
Regular nitrile gloves are not prone to sufficient microbial activity to begin breaking down the polymer’s molecular structure and hence the process of degradation and reclamation of the used gloves depends on light, heat, mechanical stress and moisture. Biodegradable Disposable Nitrile Glove is a recent significant major breakthrough. These gloves manufactured with a new eco friendly technology has been shown to accelerate the biodegradation of nitrile in biologically active landfills and anaerobic digesters as validated by independent certified laboratories using internationally recognized test methods. Biodegradable Disposable Nitrile Glove is composed of organic materials designed to make the glove attractive to microbial activity. These microorganisms on consuming the material in the glove excrete enzymes that depolymerize the nitrile. This results in a final product composed of biogases and inert humus.