Characterization of organic release kinetics in particleboard using a dual model fitting methodology

Abstract

In modern society, people spend most of their time indoors engaging in their work and home life. However, indoor air pollution is a potential risk to health, and it is associated with many diseases. Wooden furniture, as the most popular indoor furniture used in modern times, is a major source of indoor air pollution, so it has become imperative to explore the composition and release kinetics characteristics of toxic and hazardous substances from wood-based panels. In this study, thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) was used to detect the release of organic compounds from wood panels, and determine the release kinetics of the organic compounds dimethyl acetal, phenol, toluene and decanoic acid via bi-exponential and mass transfer models to provide a theoretical basis for targeted pollution prevention and control. In this project, a climate chamber method was used to conduct a 120 h continuous sampling of the release concentration of compounds from wood panels. The TD-GC-MS method was used to analyze the sampling tubes, and the concentration–time data were fitted to the bi-exponential and mass transfer models. The emission factor equation was obtained from the bi-exponential model. The critical physical parameters, such as the initial internal release concentration C₀, internal diffusion rate D_m, and solid-phase/gas-phase partition coefficient K, were obtained from the mass transfer model. Finally, it was found that dimethyl acetal and toluene were easily and rapidly released into the air, while phenol and decanoic acid were slowly released into the ambient air. The two sets of release kinetics characteristics provide an essential theoretical basis for targeted pollution prevention and control, as well as a methodological path for studying the release kinetics of different toxic and hazardous substances.