Measurements of VOC adsorption/desorption characteristics of typical interior building materials
The adsorption/desorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on interior building material surfaces (i.e., the sink effect) can affect the VOC concentrations in a building, and thus need to be accounted for an indoor air quality (IAQ) prediction model. In this study, the VOC adsorption/desorption characteristics (sink effect) were measured for four typical interior building materials including carpet, vinyl floor tile, painted drywall, and ceiling tile. The VOCs tested were ethylbenzene, cyclohexanone, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, benzaldehyde, and dodecane. These five VOCs were selected because they are representative of hydrocarbons, aromatics, ketones, aldehydes, and chlorine substituted compounds. The first order reversible adsorption/desorption model was based on the Langmuir isotherm was used to analyze the data and to determine the equilibrium constant of each VOC-material combination. It was found that the adsorption/desorption equilibrium constant, which is a measure of the sink capacity, increased linearly with the inverse of the VOC vapor pressure. For each compound, the adsorption/desorption equilibrium constant, and the adsorption rate constant differed significantly among the four materials tested. A detailed characterization of the material structure in the micro-scale would improve the understanding and modeling of the sink effect in the future. The results of this study can be used to estimate the impact of sink effect on the VOC concentrations in buildings.
- Research Organization:
- Duke Univ. Medical Center, Durham, NC (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20104793
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ASHRAE Winter Meeting, Dallas, TX (US), 02/05/2000--02/09/2000; Other Information: The full text of this paper can be found in the International Journal of Heating, Ventilating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Research; 5: No.4, 297-316(Oct 1999); PBD: 2000; Related Information: In: ASHRAE Transactions 2000; Volume 106, Part 1, 929 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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