Permeation of eleven protective garment materials by four organic solvents

The resistance of 11 different protective garment materials to permeation by epichlorohydrin, perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and 1,2-dibromoethane were determined. Water was the collection medium in the epichlorohydrin tests with samples taken periodically and analyzed by gas chromatography. Because of the relatively low solubilities of the other three challenge liquids in water, air was used as the collection medium. The concentrations of the permeant vapors in an airstream which passed across the downstream sides of the membranes were determined automatically every 2 min with a flame ionization detector. Butyl rubber offers good protection against epichlorohydrin, with breakthrough occurring after 8 hrs. With the halogenated hydrocarbons, Viton and Vitrile provide protection for at least 12 and 24 hrs, respectively, while PVA showed no breakthrough in 24 hrs with trichloroethylene and dibromoethane. With perchloroethylene, nitrile breakthrough occurred in 5 hrs. The weight and volume changes which occurred when the materials were soaked in each of the challenge liquids were also determined. The log of these changes correlated moderately well with the log of the breakthrough time normalized by the square of the material thickness.