Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: RedLed on January 28, 2014, 01:42:11 PM
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Hello everyone,
First of all I hope I'm posting in the good section, sorry if I'm wrong. This forum looks really interesting, already got me lost in some topics before I write this :D
I have a question for people who know more chemistry than I do :p
What substance can dissolve latex - like in balloons or condoms ?
I've read that acetone would do the trick, but after trying it I guess I would need bigger doses or better acetone, I don't know..
For those who are curious, I'm studying engineering and would like to try to break balloons with a robot using, maybe, a chemical way.
Thank you very much for your time! I wish you all an excellent day. ;D
Red Led
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What you're looking for is a solvent compatibility chart, for latex. If you quickly Google it, you will find a dozen PDF's from various manufacturers of laboratory gloves telling you what chemicals latex can and can't resist. I don't know if you want to use some of the more esoteric reagents, but the listing is there for you.
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Thank you very much! I found lots of tables thanks to you.
I will try to find the ones that can be found on the market!
By esoteric agents, did you mean complicated/hard to find ones ?
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Yeah. Or toxic, smelly, quickly evaporating, expensive or other properties deleterious to your application.
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Just note, compatibility tables may not refer exclusively to solubility because that's not what they're formulated for. Especially for gloves, permeability is the chief issue. What I mean is that if a compatibility table tells you that you can't use latex gloves with X solvent, that doesn't mean that the glove will dissolve in X solvent. It's possible, even likely, that it only means that the latex doesn't provide an adequate barrier to prevent the solvent from diffusing through it and coming into exposure with your skin.
Latex most likely won't dissolve easily. Seems like turpentine is traditionally used - which makes sense since they have somewhat similar chemical structural features. I would recommend shredding your latex material or otherwise cutting it into small pieces to help out, and use gentle heating. Immersing a whole glove isn't going to get you very far.
(Also your material may not be pure latex. So that's a consideration.)
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Turpentine - just a small amount will cause an inflated balloon to pop/ have you thought about a laser?
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Check what solvent contributes to the rubber glue used for bicycle tyres.
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What about xylene or toluene? I reckon they would be faster acting than acetone on balloon rubber.
I am trying to picture your robot though... how will it deliver the solvent to the balloon? I don't think you can have a robot going around spraying solvents all over the place - it sounds dangerous.