Measurement of emissions of semi-volatile organic compounds from products at elevated temperature using μ-CTE thermal extractor followed by thermal desorption GC/MS

摘要

Knowledge on the emissions of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) is critical to understand their levels indoors and therefore is important to indoor air quality research. Emissions of SVOCs such as phthalates from vinyl floorings at elevated temperatures up to 90 °C were measured using a commercially available 44-ml micro-chamber. Air samples from the chamber were collected in thermal desorption tubes and analysed using thermal desorption GC/MS. Correlation of temperature and emission rates were determined for neat dibutyl phthalate (DnBP) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) as well as for DEHP from vinyl products. Results showed that concentration of phthalate in chamber air at steady state can be described as LnC = B -ΔH/(RT), where T is the absolute temperature in Kelvin and B is constant that can be determined experimentally. The relationship will enable us to extrapolate emission rates at ambient temperature using rates determined at a higher temperature.