Preliminary Study on Effect of Chemical Composition Alteration on Elastic Recovery and Stress Recovery of Nitrile Gloves

¹ School of Engineering, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
² Top Glove R&D Centre, GMP Medicare Sdn Bhd, Factory 25, 41050 Klang, Malaysia
³ Faculty of Lee Kong Chain Engineering & Science, UTAR, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: eunicepsw@gmail.com

Abstract

Nitrile gloves are widely used in the medical and automobile field due to its superiority in hypo-allergic component and chemical resistance over natural latex gloves. However, poor elastic recovery of nitrile glove to compressive force also creates an aesthetic issue for customers with high levels of wrinkling after removing from glove box. This paper demonstrates the preliminary study on the varies chemical composition such as crosslinking agents, sulphur and zinc oxide, the accelerator agent added during curing process, and the rubber filler Titanium Dioxide, on the elastic recovery and stress relaxation in nitrile gloves manufacturing. These chemical were studied at different concentration level comparing the high and low level versus the normal production range. Due to the inconsistency in the analysis technique on the surface imaging, the elastic recovery result was unable to be quantified and was not conclusive at this point. The cross linking agents, sulphur and zinc oxide, and the accelerator agent, played a significant role in the mechanical strength of the gloves. Increment of these chemicals result in higher tensile strength, but a reduction in the elasticity of the materials in which causes a lesser elongation at break percentage for the gloves. Both cross-linkers demonstrate different behaviour where higher sulphur content, provide higher stress relaxation (SR%) yet zinc oxide shows otherwise.