TY - JOUR A1 - Even, Morgane A1 - Juritsch, Elevtheria A1 - Richter, Matthias T1 - Measurement of very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs) in indoor air by sorbent-based active sampling: Identifying the gaps towards standardisation N2 - The ISO 16000-6 standard describes a method for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor and test chamber air by sorbent-based active sampling, thermal desorption and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). It also gives directions to adapt this methodology to very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs). Indeed, toxicologically based guideline values are being implemented for these compounds and it becomes necessary to measure them. But a comprehensive and robust measurement method is lacking. This work highlights the points that still need to be explored towards the standardisation of a suitable procedure: investigations on sorbent combinations, the suitability of chromatography columns and the use of gaseous standards are required. The biggest challenge remains in the fact that strong sorbents adsorb water together with VVOCs. Water may impair the analysis and the optimal approach to eliminate it is still to be found and integrated into the sampling strategy. KW - Solvents KW - Air analysis KW - VOC KW - Thermal desorption KW - Gas chromatography KW - ISO 16000-6 PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-523919 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2021.116265 VL - 140 SP - 116265 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-52391 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Even, Morgane A1 - Juritsch, Elevtheria A1 - Richter, Matthias T1 - Selection of gas standards, gas chromatography column and adsorbents for the measurement of very volatile organic compounds (C1–C6) in indoor air N2 - The ISO 16000-6 standard gives directions to adapt the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor and test chamber air to very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs). The same techniques with sorbent-based active sampling, thermal desorption and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS) should be used. However, VVOCs require gaseous standards, an adapted GC column and a reliable sampling adsorbent. This work presents experimental results to tackle those three experimental gaps. A stable standard gas mixture containing 47 VVOCs, 13 VOCs and an internal standard was successfully generated. It was employed to study the suitability of seven types of chromatography columns. The use of PLOT (Porous Layer Open Tubular) columns such as PoraBOND Q is well suitable for VVOC analysis. The recoveries of the 60 analytes on a total of 16 adsorbents and their combinations were determined: A combination of the graphitized carbon black Carbograph 5TD 40/60 and the carbon molecular sieve CarbosieveTM SII showed great recoveries for all analytes. Carbon molecular sieves adsorb water which can impair the analysis. A dry purge of the multi-sorbent in the sampling direction led to a complete water removal and promising recoveries of the analytes. KW - VVOC KW - VOC KW - ISO 16000-6 KW - Gas chromatography KW - Thermal desorption KW - Air sampling PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2022.340561 SN - 0003-2670 VL - 1238 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-56366 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Horn, Wolfgang A1 - Wilke, Olaf A1 - Mull, B. A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Brödner, Doris A1 - Mölders, N. A1 - Renner, M. T1 - Reproducibly emitting reference material for quality assurance/quality control of emission test chamber measurements N2 - Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are ubiquitous in the indoor air, since they emit from materials used indoors. Investigations of these materials are mostly carried out in test chambers under controlled climatic conditions. Quality control of these test chamber measurements is important but there is a lack of commercially available homogenous reference materials as required for round robin tests or quality assurance of laboratories. The approach of the present study is the impregnation of a supporting material with VOC, which are reproducibly released in measurable chamber air concentrations under standardised test conditions. A polymer made of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) was chosen as carrier material. It was impregnated with the VOC trimethyl pentanediol isobutyrat (texanol). T2 - Healthy Buildings 2017 Europe CY - Lublin, Poland DA - 02.07.2017 KW - Emissions testing KW - Volatile organic compounds KW - Polymeric material KW - CO2 assisted impregnation PY - 2017 SN - 978-83-7947-232-1 SP - Paper 0172, 1 EP - 2 AN - OPUS4-42348 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bastuck, M. A1 - Baur, T. A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Mull, B. A1 - Schütze, A. A1 - Sauerwald, T. T1 - Comparison of ppb-level gas measurements with a metal-oxide semiconductor gas sensor in two independent laboratories N2 - In this work, we use a gas sensor system consisting of a commercially available gas sensor in temperature cycled operation. It is trained with an extensive gas profile for detection and quantification of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the ppb range independent of a varying background of other, less harmful VOCs and inorganic interfering gases like humidity or hydrogen. This training was then validated using a different gas mixture generation apparatus at an independent lab providing analytical methods as reference. While the varying background impedes selective detection of benzene and naphthalene at the low concentrations supplied, both formaldehyde and total VOC can well be quantified, after calibration transfer, by models trained with data from one system and evaluated with data from the other system. The lowest achievable root mean squared errors of prediction were 49 ppb for formaldehyde (in a concentration range of 20–200 ppb) and 150 μg/m³ (in a concentration range of 25–450 μg/m³) for total VOC. The latter uncertainty improves to 13 μg/m³ with a more confined model range of 220–320 μg/m³. The data from the second lab indicate an interfering gas which cannot be detected analytically but strongly influences the sensor signal. This demonstrates the need to take into account all sensor relevant gases, like, e.g., hydrogen and carbon monoxide, in analytical reference measurements. KW - Indoor air quality KW - Volatile organic compounds KW - Calibration transfer KW - Selective quantification KW - Inter-lab comparison PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2018.06.097 SN - 0925-4005 VL - 273 SP - 1037 EP - 1046 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-45609 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Klinge, A. A1 - Roswag, E. A1 - Fontana, Patrick A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Hoppe, Johannes A1 - Sjöström, C. T1 - Hygroscopic natural materials versus mechanical ventilation N2 - Multi residential buildings, developed as highly energy-efficient and airtight are nowadays often fitted with mechanical Ventilation Systems as a way to overcome shortcomings and even defects tinked to indoor climate. The presented study investigates the potential of low-emitting. natural building materials with hygroscopic properties to contribute to a healthy and comfortable indoor environment, while reducing the need for mechanical Ventilation. A selection of natural building materials suitable for application as internal partition walls has been investigated with regards to their water vapour adsorption capacity. Special emphasis was placed on the investigation of modified earth plasters as well as wood-based materials, used as wall lining to provide increased adsorption capacities. In addition, tests on materials emissions (formaldehyde, VOCs, SVOCs and radon) as well as adsorption tests of airborne pollutants have been conducted in specially-designed fest chambers. All tests were performed at either the material or the component tevel. Overall results to date suggest that natural materials contribute to an improved indoor environment quality through an increased moisture-buffering capacity, low emissions and the potential to adsorb airborne pollutants, therefore reducing the need for mechanical Ventilation. T2 - Terra Lyon 2016 - XIIth World Congress on Earthen Architecture CY - Lyon, France DA - 11.07.2016 KW - Hygroscopic earth and wooden materials KW - Low emissions PY - 2016 SN - 979-10-96446-11-7 SP - 218 EP - 221 PB - Editions CRAterre CY - Villefontaine AN - OPUS4-44856 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nohr, Michael A1 - Horn, Wolfgang A1 - Jann, Oliver A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Lorenz, W. T1 - Development of a multi-VOC reference material for quality assurance in materials emission testing N2 - Emission test chamber measurement is necessary to proof building materials as sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The results of such measurements are used to evaluate materials and label them according to their potential to emit harmful substances, polluting indoor air. If only labelled materials were installed indoors, this would improve indoor air quality and prevent negative impacts on human health. Because of the complex testing procedure, reference materials for the quality assurance are mandatory. Currently, there is a lack of such materials because most building products show a broad variation of emissions even within one batch. A previous study indicates lacquers, mixed with volatile organic pollutants, as reproducible emission source for a wide range of substances. In the present study, the curing of the lacquer-VOC mixture inside micro-chambers was optimised. Therefore, the humidity and the chamber flow were varied. Typical indoor air pollutants with a wide range of volatilities, for example, styrene, n-hexadecane, dimethyl and dibutyl phthalate were selected. It turned out that, under optimised curing parameters inside the micro-chamber, their emission can be reproduced with variations of less than 10 %. With this, a next important step towards a reference material for emission testing was achieved. KW - Reference material KW - Emission KW - Emission test chamber KW - Micro-chamber KW - VOC PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-014-8387-2 SN - 1618-2642 SN - 1618-2650 VL - 407 IS - 11 SP - 3231 EP - 3237 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-32404 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Klinge, A. A1 - Roswag-Klinge, E. A1 - Ziegert, C. A1 - Fontana, Patrick A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Hoppe, Johannes ED - Habert, G. ED - Schlueter, A. T1 - Naturally ventilated earth timber constructions N2 - Earth, timber, fibre boards and insulation materials based on wooden and other natural fibres offer a variety of properties beneficial for eco innovative constructions that are able to improve the energy and resource efficiency of buildings. Due to their porosity, natural building materials are vapour active and are able to buffer moisture. In combination with highly insulated and airtight but vapour permeable building envelopes, modern earth-timber constructions provide stable indoor humidity levels and can therefore be naturally ventilated while achieving highest energy efficiency standards. Experimental evidence suggests that monitored pilot buildings in Berlin do show healthy indoor air humidity levels (around 50%) in wintertime, while mechanically ventilated buildings demonstrate significantly lower values (around 25%), which have to be considered as uncomfortable and unhealthy. The application of building materials being poor in chemical emissions, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOC) and radon, improves the indoor air quality further, so that intermittent ventilation twice a day will be sufficient to provide healthy indoor air quality. The air quality in critical rooms (e.g. small bedrooms), demonstrating a smaller air volume, should be monitored if appropriate ratios of room size to occupancy level cannot be realised. Through night time ventilation in summer, vapour active earth-timber constructions provide evaporative cooling (humidity adsorption at night time and desorption during the day). As a result, indoor temperatures of earth-timber buildings range around 8 °C below the outside temperature peak, when an appropriate glazing ratio is reflected. The EU funded research project H-house is investigating various construction materials regarding water vapour adsorption as well as emission and absorption of harmful substances. Based on this investigation new wall constructions are designed to provide a healthier indoor environment. T2 - Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) Regional Conference - Expanding Boundaries: Systems Thinking for the Built Environment CY - Zurich, Switzerland DA - 15.06.2016 KW - Building materials KW - Climate control through building elements KW - Hygroscopic earthen and wooden materials KW - Natural ventilation KW - Airtight building KW - Low emissions PY - 2016 SN - 978-3-7281-3774-6 DO - https://doi.org/10.3218/3774-6 SP - 674 EP - 681 PB - vdf Hochschulverlag und der ETH Zürich CY - Zürich AN - OPUS4-37201 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Mull, Birte A1 - Sauerwald, T. A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Horn, Wolfgang A1 - Brödner, Doris A1 - Schultealbert, C. T1 - Development of a reproducibly emitting reference material for volatile organic compounds N2 - The aim of this study is the development of a reproducibly emitting reference material for volatile organic compounds (VOC). The first part of the work was carried out with styrene, for which supporting materials were successfully selected, doped and analyzed in test chambers. T2 - Indoor Air 2016 The 14th international conference of Indoor Air Quality and Climate CY - Ghent, Belgium DA - 03.07.2016 KW - Quality control KW - Emission test chamber KW - Indoor air KW - Quality assurance PY - 2016 SN - 978-0-9846855-5-4 AN - OPUS4-36849 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Richter, Matthias A1 - Mull, Birte A1 - Horn, Wolfgang A1 - Brödner, Doris A1 - Mölders, N. A1 - Renner, M. T1 - Reproducibly emitting reference material on thermoplastic polyurethane basis for quality assurance/quality control of emission test chamber measurements N2 - Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are ubiquitous in the indoor air since they are emitted from materials used indoors. Investigations of these materials are mostly carried out in emission test chambers under controlled climatic conditions. Reference materials are an important tool for quality assurance/Quality control of emission test chamber measurements but so far they are not commercially available. In this study, a new approach was tested to develop an appropriate reference material with homogenous and reproducible emission of the VOC with well measurable air concentrations in emission test Chambers larger than 20 L at air change rates of 0.5 - 1 /h. Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) was selected as Matrix material which was impregnated with 2,2,4- trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol monoisobutyrate (texanol) as test VOC using compressed carbon dioxide. An optimization of the impregnation parameters such as temperature, pressure, time, VOC injection volume and TPU sample size was performed until the targeted area specific Emission rate (SERa) value was reached. Further aspects like process control, storage effects and correlation of the sample size to the emission rate were investigated. It was found that the SERa immediately after sample preparation were not reproducible between the batches but became unified 10 days after loading into the test chamber indicating the necessity of aging before use. SERa between 13,000 and 18,000 mg m-2 h-1 were obtained, and the impregnated materials could be well stored in aluminum-coated polyethylene foil for at least seven weeks without significant losses. Furthermore, the impregnation of styrene and the SVOC 2,6-diisopropylnaphthalene was tested. KW - Reference material KW - Emissions testing KW - Volatile organic compounds KW - Polymer material KW - CO2 assisted impregnation PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.06.005 SN - 0360-1323 SN - 1873-684X VL - 122 SP - 230 EP - 236 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-40646 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mull, Birte A1 - Sauerwald, T. A1 - Schultealbert, C. A1 - Horn, Wolfgang A1 - Brödner, Doris A1 - Richter, Matthias T1 - Reproducibly emitting reference materials for volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds—using finite element modeling for emission predictions N2 - Recent research into emissions of (semi-)volatile organic compounds [(S)VOC] from solid materials has focused on the development of suitable reference materials for quality assurance/quality control of emission test chamber measurements, which fulfill requirements such as homogenous and reproducible (S)VOC release. The approach of this study was to find a method for preparation of a material with predictable (S)VOC emission rates. AVOC (styrene) and an SVOC (2,6-diisopropylnaphthalene, DIPN), loaded into either vacuum grease or a 1:1 mixture of paraffin/squalane, have been tested. For the prediction of the emission rates, a model using the finite element method (FEM) was created to simulate the (S)VOC emission profiles. Theoretical and experimental results obtained in a Micro-Chamber/Thermal Extractor (μ-CTE™) and in 24 L emission test chamber measurements were in good agreement. Further properties were investigated concerning the material applicability, such as shelf life and inter-laboratory comparability. The maximum relative standard deviation in the inter-laboratory study was found to be 20%. KW - Emitting reference material KW - Emission test chamber KW - Micro-chamber KW - FEM model PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-017-0508-6 SN - 1873-9318 SN - 1873-9326 VL - 10 IS - 10 SP - 1237 EP - 1246 PB - Springer Science+Business Media B.V. AN - OPUS4-41951 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -