Determination of 2-Ethyl-1-hexanol Produced by Plastic Building Materials in Environment Affected by Fungi and Humidity
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Lin, Pei-Hui
Abstract
Plastics are often used as building materials and likely involving in sick building syndrome (SBS) in recent years. The previous studies proposed that plasticizers added to plastics for imparting flexibility and workability may be degraded to form 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (2-ethylhexanol, 2EH) by microorganisms. And relative humidity (RH) influences chemical emission from building materials and growth of fungi. In that, this study was focused on the yields of 2EH and other prominent compounds in association with plastic building materials, fungi, and RH. Taguchi Method was employed for experimental design to form nine trials where plastic building materials, fungi and RH were parameters and each parameter had three levels. The treatment for each trial was conducted in a 20 mL vial with functions of cultivation of microorganisms on plastic building materials and control of different RH by saturated salt solution. 2EH and other prominent compounds were sampled by headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) with polyacrylate fiber on days 1, 4, 7, 10 and 14. The samples were analyzed by GC/FID. The qualitative analyses for unidentified compounds were performed using GC/MS. ANOVA analysis was performed using the Qualitek-4 software. The results indicated that 2EH was detected only in the trials having floor covering as a building material in the experimental system and the concentrations of 2EH were not apparently different in 14 days. Two specific compounds, benzaldehyde and acetophenone, but 2EH were found in the trials having wall covering as a building material, and the amount of the two compounds descended in 14 days. The highest amounts for the three compounds usually occurred on the 1st day and no prominent amount could be attributed to microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs). The ANOVA analysis demonstrated that plastic building materials were the predominant parameter governing the yield of 2EH, benzaldehyde and acetophenone and the influence percent were 47.71%－85.20%、90.72%－96.33% and 90.18%－96.90%, respectively. Fungi as well as RH had no significant influence on production of the compounds. In conclusion, the plastic building materials are the determinants to yield the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the chemical species emitted are dependent on the characteristics of materials. The experimental system used in this study is suggested to be an applicable way for accessing the emission of VOCs from new building materials beforehand.
Subjects
2-ethyl-1-hexanol
benzaldehyde
acetophenone
plastic building material
fungi
relative humidity
solid phase microextraction
Type
thesis
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