Solubility Parameter Prediction of the Barrier Properties of Chemical Protective Clothing

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Abstract
Solubility parameter correlations based on breakthrough times are presented. Solubility parameters have been used previously to estimate whether or not a given permeant will swell or dissolve in a given membrane. Increased solubility is predicted when the solubility parameters for the polymer and penetrant approach each other. Some experimental work is required to characterize either the permeant or the membrane if no data are already available. Since the diffusion coefficients for organic permeants in organic membranes increase exponentially with permeant concentration, there is a very strong dependence of permeation on solubility and therefore on solubility parameters. All other things being equal, penetrants with bulky structures and side groups will permeate more slowly than those with more linear and less voluminous structures. For this reason elimination of permeants with either very small or very large molecular size significantly improves most of the correlations presented, but limits their range of usefulness.