1945

Glove Boxes

It goes without saying that some of the reagents used in a chemistry lab must be handled carefully, especially reactive compounds that instantly burst into flame when exposed to air. Vacuum-line techniques are one way to handle these substances, especially the liquids, but sometimes what you really need is a lab bench located in a place with no oxygen.

Enter the idea of the glove box: a large, enclosed box, typically with a glass or plastic front for visibility, whose air has been replaced with an inert gas such as nitrogen or argon. Chemists perform their work inside the box by placing their arms into rubber sleeve gloves built into the box’s front wall, but they have to plan their operations carefully. Taking things in and out of a working glove box is not done casually. There’s usually an air-lock arrangement involving a small transfer box that allows the operator to bring items inside after purging them of outside air, but that takes a while.

The glove box seems to have first been used during the Manhattan Project. Those models were built from scratch out of plywood, glass, and rubber when the scientists realized just how difficult and dangerous their work was turning out to be. The practice seems to have been carried from there into laboratories around the world. Some industrial applications employ large, multiuser glove boxes with portholes for viewing. Glove boxes are installed on the International Space Station for microgravity experiments with hazardous reagents as well.

Many organometallic compounds are sensitive to oxygen or moisture, so inorganic chemists are most likely to have well-maintained glove boxes. Keeping a glove box well maintained and operational requires dedication and a steady supply of inert gas. The classic test for this is to switch on an incandescent light bulb inside the box and then carefully break the bulb open. If it continues to burn—that is, if the atmosphere inside the glove box is as inert as that inside a commercial light bulb—then you’re in business.

A large-scale glove box. Smaller versions (often with separate entries for each arm) are in use wherever research on air-sensitive compounds is the main focus.