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Siloxanes Are the Most Abundant Volatile Organic Compound Emitted from Engineering Students in a Classroom

2015; American Chemical Society; Volume: 2; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00256

2328-8930

Xiaochen Tang, Pawel K. Misztal, William W. Nazaroff, A. H. Goldstein,

Air Quality and Health Impacts

Direct human emissions are known to contribute volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to indoor air via various mechanisms. However, few measurements that determine the emissions of a full suite of occupant-associated VOCs are available. We measured occupant-related VOC emissions from engineering students in a classroom using a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS). The dominant compound emitted was a cyclic volatile methylsiloxane (cVMS), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), which is a major inactive ingredient in some personal care products such as antiperspirants. D5 was found to contribute ∼30% of the total indoor VOC mass concentration as measured by the PTR-TOF-MS. Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6) were detected at abundances that were 1–2 orders of magnitude lower. The per-person emission rate of these three cVMS declined monotonically from morning into the afternoon, consistent with expectations for emissions from daily morning application of personal care products.