Vapour Permeability and Testing For Solvents

 

Measuring the vapour permeability of solvents is crucial across many industries for both performance and regulatory reasons. The key motivations generally fall into six main categories:

1. Preventing Product Degradation and Solvent Loss
Solvents often play a vital role in maintaining a product’s functionality—such as in adhesives, inks, coatings, cosmetics, fuels and pharmaceuticals. If they evapourate too quickly through packaging or barrier layers, the product can:

• Dry out prematurely
• Lose effectiveness or consistency
• Change chemically due to concentration shifts

Why it matters:
Vapour permeability testing ensures materials can effectively retain solvents during shelf life and use.

2. Designing and Validating Barrier Materials
Technical films, membranes, laminates and coatings are widely used to block or regulate vapour transmission. Measuring solvent vapour permeability is essential when selecting or engineering:

• Packaging films for volatile products
• Protective clothing for hazardous environments
• Industrial tanks, liners or pipes
• Medical dressings or drug-delivery patches

Why it matters:
To validate that materials perform to specification, meet safety standards and maintain chemical resistance.

3. Optimising Separation Processes (e.g. Pervapouration)
In chemical engineering and membrane technology, solvents are intentionally separated using vapour permeability. This includes:

• Dehydration of alcohols (e.g. ethanol)
• Recovery of aroma compounds or VOCs
• Solvent recycling and purification

Why it matters:
Accurate measurement helps engineers select the most effective membrane and operating conditions for selective separation.

4. Ensuring Safety in Hazardous Environments
In sectors such as defence, aerospace, manufacturing and firefighting, protective equipment is often exposed to toxic or flammable solvents. Understanding how vapours permeate through gloves, suits or enclosures is vital for:

• User safety and exposure limits
• Standards compliance (e.g. EN ISO 6529, ASTM F739)
• Material certification and life-cycle analysis

Why it matters:
Testing ensures that personal protective equipment (PPE) resists harmful solvent vapours under real-world conditions.

5. Complying with Environmental and Regulatory Requirements
Solvent vapours often contribute to:

• Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions
• Workplace exposure risks (regulated by HSE, OSHA, etc.)
• Flammability or explosion hazards

Why it matters:
Measuring and controlling vapour permeability helps meet environmental regulations, reduce emissions and avoid liability.

6. Supporting R&D, Material Innovation and Quality Control
Developers of new materials—such as bio-based films, nanocomposites, or smart packaging—must benchmark their vapour barrier properties during formulation and scale-up.
Why it matters:
Permeability testing provides vital feedback for formulation refinement, quality assurance and competitive comparison.

Summary
In short, vapour permeability measurement of solvents is essential to:

• Preserve product integrity
• Select and validate materials
• Enable efficient separation and recovery
• Ensure health and safety
• Meet environmental and industrial standards
• Innovate and control quality in material science

Applications of the vapour permeability of solvents

Vapour permeability of solvents - how easily solvent vapours can pass through materials - is a critical factor in many industrial and commercial applications, particularly in industries where barrier performance, safety, material compatibility and product longevity matter. Below are the main application areas:

1. Packaging Industry
Key Application: Barrier materials for packaging

• Food & Beverage: Packaging must prevent solvent vapours (like ethanol in alcoholic drinks or flavour volatiles) from escaping or external contaminants from entering.
• Pharmaceuticals: Ensuring drug stability by limiting moisture and solvent vapour ingress or egress in blister packs or sachets.
• Cosmetics & Personal Care: Preventing loss of volatile ingredients like alcohol in perfumes or solvents in creams.

2. Chemical Processing and Storage
Key Application: Containment and transport of volatile substances

• Solvent Tanks & Pipelines: Use of liners and coatings with low vapour permeability to minimize solvent loss and environmental contamination.
• Drum Liners and Jerrycans: Designed to prevent vapour diffusion for safety and regulatory compliance (e.g., VOC emission limits).

3. Protective Clothing and PPE
Key Application: Breathable yet solvent-resistant garments

• Hazmat Suits: Must block dangerous chemical vapours while allowing body moisture to escape.
• Gloves and Aprons: Selected based on permeability to specific solvents encountered in labs or manufacturing.

4. Automotive and Aerospace
Key Application: Material selection for seals, linings and barriers

• Fuel Systems: Barrier layers in fuel tanks and lines to limit hydrocarbon vapour permeation.
• Cabin Materials: Preventing ingress of external pollutants or emissions from adhesives and sealants used internally.

5. Adhesives, Sealants and Coatings
Key Application: Controlling curing and solvent retention/loss

• Paints and Coatings: Managing solvent evapouration rates for uniform drying.
• Sealants: Evaluated for vapour permeability to ensure performance in humid or solvent-rich environments.

6. Membrane Technologies
Key Application: Controlled permeation for separation processes

• Pervapouration Membranes: Selectively allow certain solvents to pass through for purification or separation (e.g., ethanol-water mixtures).
• Fuel Cells & Sensors: Materials that must allow hydrogen or methanol vapours while blocking others.

7. Environmental Protection and Remediation
Key Application: Barriers to vapour intrusion

• Landfill Liners and Covers: Prevent emission of VOCs into the atmosphere.
• Brownfield Redevelopment: Vapour barriers used beneath buildings to block solvent vapours from contaminated soils.

8. Construction Materials
Key Application: Breathability and barrier function in building materials

• Vapour Barriers and Wraps: Control moisture and vapour diffusion in walls, especially where solvents may be present from coatings or cleaners.

Summary Table

Industry	Application	Solvent Permeability Role
Packaging	Food, pharma, cosmetics containers	Prevent vapour loss or ingress
Chemical	Storage tanks, drums	Safety, regulatory control of emissions
PPE	Hazmat suits, gloves	Block harmful vapours, allow perspiration
Automotive	Fuel systems, seals	Limit vapour emissions
Adhesives/Coatings	Paints, sealants	Manage evapouration, durability
Membranes	Pervapouration, fuel cells	Selective vapour transport
Environmental	Liners, vapour barriers	Block VOCs and hazardous vapours
Construction	Wall wraps, roofing	Moisture/vapour control in structures

 

Standards for the vapour permeability of solvents
there are several international and industry standards that relate to the permeability of solvents, though they are more fragmented than those for water vapour or gases. These standards typically fall under:

• Chemical resistance and permeation testing (e.g. PPE, membranes)
• Barrier property evaluation (e.g. packaging, films)
• Membrane separation processes (e.g. pervapouration)

Here’s a list of the most relevant British (BS), European (EN), American (ASTM) and international (ISO) standards related to solvent vapour permeability:

1. Protective Clothing and Gloves
These standards test how well materials resist chemical vapour and solvent permeation, often using specific solvents:

• EN ISO 6529 – Protective clothing. Protection against chemicals. Determination of resistance of protective clothing materials to permeation by liquids and gases.
• EN 374-3 / EN ISO 374-1 – Protective gloves against dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms – Part 3: Determination of resistance to permeation by chemicals.
• ASTM F739 – Standard Test Method for Permeation of Liquids and Gases through Protective Clothing Materials under Conditions of Continuous Contact.
• ASTM D6978 – Resistance of medical gloves to permeation by chemotherapy drugs and solvents.

2. Barrier Films, Packaging and Materials
These deal with solvent or VOC permeability in packaging films, coatings or laminates:

• ASTM E96 – Standard Test Methods for Water Vapour Transmission of Materials (sometimes adapted for solvents).
• ASTM F739 and ASTM F1383 – Used for flexible barrier materials exposed to chemical vapours.
• ISO 15105-1 / -2 – Gas permeability test for plastic films and sheeting – not specific to solvents but sometimes used with volatile organics.
• ASTM F1249 – Often adapted to measure organic vapour permeability using modified setups.

3. Fuel System & Automotive Materials
Solvent-like fuels (e.g. ethanol blends, benzene) are tested for vapour emissions through materials:

• SAE J2659 – Fuel Permeation Test Procedure for Evaluating the Permeation Resistance of Fuel System Components.
• EPA 40 CFR Part 1060 – Control of evapourative emissions from non-road equipment.
  Includes methods for measuring fuel permeation (solvent-related).

4. Membranes and Pervapouration

• ASTM D814 – Rubber property – vapour transmission of organic liquids.
• ISO 16603 / 16604 – Often used in biomedical membrane testing.
• There is no single standard for pervapouration, but academic and industrial methods use:
• Permeation flux (g/m²/h or kg/m²/s)
• Separation factor (selectivity between solvent and water)
• Mass spectrometry or gravimetric methods.

5. Miscellaneous / Research Use

• ISO 2556 – Plastics – Determination of the gas transmission rate.
• ASTM D1434 – Permeability of plastics to gases (occasionally modified for VOC vapours).
• Custom in-house methods (like those developed by Versaperm) for multi-solvent and low-permeability applications.

Summary Table:

Standard	Area	Notes
EN ISO 6529	Clothing & PPE	Solvent/gas permeation
ASTM F739	Protective materials	Widely used with solvents
ISO 15105-1/-2	Films & packaging	Adaptable to solvents
ASTM D814	Rubber materials	Organic vapour permeation
SAE J2659	Fuel permeation (auto industry)	For ethanol and other volatile solvents
ASTM D6978	Chemotherapy glove permeation	Includes solvents in testing
Custom/MS-based	Lab/industrial applications	For multi-solvent or low ppm analysis

 

Click here for a press release on industrial permeability testing

Click here for a general article on the solvents from Wikipedia

Click here for an article on hydrocarbon permeability measurement