Development of an Improved VOC Analysis Method for Architectural Coatings

摘要

Specific regulatory volatile organic compound (VOC) limits have been set for architectural coatings to insure emissions from these materials will decrease and air quality will improve. As regulations have lowered limits of allowed VOCs, a significant problem with enforceability of these regulations has developed since reliable methods for the analysis of these VOCs are not available. Currently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (US EPA) Method 24 is used to test the VOC content of coatings. It is widely accepted that Method 24 is not reliable for the analysis of low VOC waterborne coatings. Method 24 is not suitable for determining the VOC content of solventborne coatings containing exempt compounds of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Method 24 cannot be used to determine the VOCs in two-component (2K) waterborne coatings. In all cases the reason for the unreliability and unsuitability of Method 24 results from its being an indirect method of measuring VOCs in these types of coatings.