Improving the determination of VOC's and Semi- VOC's in building materials and car trim components using direct thermal desorption

摘要

Emissions of (semi-)volatile organic compounds ((S)VOCs) from materials can adversely impact indoor and in-vehicle air quality. The European Construction Products Directive requires control / testing of VOC emissions to make sure that materials are safe. Risk of toxic emissions can also be reduced by ensuring that the (S-)VOC content of a material is kept inherently low. Direct thermal desorption (TD)/extraction may be used to measure (S-)VOCs in a wide range of solid, resinous and liquid materials and eliminates complex liquid extraction steps. It is already used by the German automotive industry for testing car trim components (Method VDA 278, 2001). This paper demonstrates the performance of the latest automated technology for direct desorption of materials and demonstrates a novel approach to validation of analyte recovery. Recent development of a combined micro-chamber / thermal extraction system offering both content testing and approximate emissions data is also presented.