Factor analysis of the influence of environmental conditions on VOC emissions from medium density fibreboard and the correlation of the factors with fitting parameters

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitting from building materials are one of the main sources of indoor pollution. Environmental factors have obvious effects on VOC emissions from building materials. However, no unified conclusions have been achieved on the influence of relative humidity (RH) and air change rate (ACR), and there is little research on the correlations of RH and ACR with parameters in VOCs emission fitting models. Therefore, factor analysis was applied in this paper to study the influence of RH and ACR on VOCs emissions. Medium density fibreboard pannels with the coating of oil-based paint were applied at four ACR (0.5 h⁻¹, 1.0 h⁻¹, 2.0 h⁻¹, 3.0 h⁻¹) and four RH (20%, 30%, 50%, 70%) conditions in 60 L environmental chambers. Tenax TA tubes were used to collect VOCs and thermal desorption-gas chromatography mass spectrometry was applied to determine the concentrations. The results show that RH influences the initial stage of VOCs emission and has a positive correlation with the emission concentrations. In the later emission stage, RH has no obvious influence on VOCs emissions, while the concentrations of VOCs are inversely proportional to ACR. The parameters in the single exponential model a₁ and b₁ have power-law or polynomial relationships with ACR and RH. ACR has negative correlations with a₁ and positive correlations with b₁, resulting in a negative influence on VOCs emissions, while RH has a complex influence on VOCs emissions. This study elucidated how RH and ACR impact VOCs emissions from oil-based paint coating medium density fibreboard and further influence human health exposure risks, which can then be used to improve indoor air quality.