Cargando…
Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves
Medical gloves, along with masks and gowns, serve as the initial line of defense against potentially infectious microorganisms and hazardous substances in the health sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical gloves played a significant role, as they were widely utilized throughout society in dai...
Autores principales: | , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10381443/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37504844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jfb14070349 |
_version_ | 1785080445106388992 |
---|---|
author | Lovato, María José del Valle, Luis J. Puiggalí, Jordi Franco, Lourdes |
author_facet | Lovato, María José del Valle, Luis J. Puiggalí, Jordi Franco, Lourdes |
author_sort | Lovato, María José |
collection | PubMed |
description | Medical gloves, along with masks and gowns, serve as the initial line of defense against potentially infectious microorganisms and hazardous substances in the health sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical gloves played a significant role, as they were widely utilized throughout society in daily activities as a preventive measure. These products demonstrated their value as important personal protection equipment (PPE) and reaffirmed their relevance as infection prevention tools. This review describes the evolution of medical gloves since the discovery of vulcanization by Charles Goodyear in 1839, which fostered the development of this industry. Regarding the current market, a comparison of the main properties, benefits, and drawbacks of the most widespread types of sanitary gloves is presented. The most common gloves are produced from natural rubber (NR), polyisoprene (IR), acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), polychloroprene (CR), polyethylene (PE), and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Furthermore, the environmental impacts of the conventional natural rubber glove manufacturing process and mitigation strategies, such as bioremediation and rubber recycling, are addressed. In order to create new medical gloves with improved properties, several biopolymers (e.g., poly(vinyl alcohol) and starch) and additives such as biodegradable fillers (e.g., cellulose and chitin), reinforcing fillers (e.g., silica and cellulose nanocrystals), and antimicrobial agents (e.g., biguanides and quaternary ammonium salts) have been evaluated. This paper covers these performance-enhancing materials and describes different innovative prototypes of gloves and coatings designed with them. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10381443 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103814432023-07-29 Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves Lovato, María José del Valle, Luis J. Puiggalí, Jordi Franco, Lourdes J Funct Biomater Review Medical gloves, along with masks and gowns, serve as the initial line of defense against potentially infectious microorganisms and hazardous substances in the health sector. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical gloves played a significant role, as they were widely utilized throughout society in daily activities as a preventive measure. These products demonstrated their value as important personal protection equipment (PPE) and reaffirmed their relevance as infection prevention tools. This review describes the evolution of medical gloves since the discovery of vulcanization by Charles Goodyear in 1839, which fostered the development of this industry. Regarding the current market, a comparison of the main properties, benefits, and drawbacks of the most widespread types of sanitary gloves is presented. The most common gloves are produced from natural rubber (NR), polyisoprene (IR), acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), polychloroprene (CR), polyethylene (PE), and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Furthermore, the environmental impacts of the conventional natural rubber glove manufacturing process and mitigation strategies, such as bioremediation and rubber recycling, are addressed. In order to create new medical gloves with improved properties, several biopolymers (e.g., poly(vinyl alcohol) and starch) and additives such as biodegradable fillers (e.g., cellulose and chitin), reinforcing fillers (e.g., silica and cellulose nanocrystals), and antimicrobial agents (e.g., biguanides and quaternary ammonium salts) have been evaluated. This paper covers these performance-enhancing materials and describes different innovative prototypes of gloves and coatings designed with them. MDPI 2023-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10381443/ /pubmed/37504844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jfb14070349 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Lovato, María José del Valle, Luis J. Puiggalí, Jordi Franco, Lourdes Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves |
title | Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves |
title_full | Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves |
title_fullStr | Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves |
title_full_unstemmed | Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves |
title_short | Performance-Enhancing Materials in Medical Gloves |
title_sort | performance-enhancing materials in medical gloves |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10381443/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37504844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jfb14070349 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lovatomariajose performanceenhancingmaterialsinmedicalgloves AT delvalleluisj performanceenhancingmaterialsinmedicalgloves AT puiggalijordi performanceenhancingmaterialsinmedicalgloves AT francolourdes performanceenhancingmaterialsinmedicalgloves |