Association between temperature, relative humidity and concentration of volatile organic compounds from wooden furniture in a model room

Abstract

Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from wooden furniture in a child's room were investigated. A model room was set up in a 12 m³ test chamber, and in parallel, a scaled-down version was run in a 1 m³ test chamber. The latter had a steady climate of 23°C/50% relative humidity (RH), while the temperature and humidity conditions were varied in the 12 m³ chamber between 18 and 28°C, and 30 and 80% RH. Compounds found were α-pinene, β-pinene, 3-carene, limonene and hexanal. Variations in the climate showed that there is an association between temperature and room concentrations of all found VOCs. Changes in RH showed effect on hexanal concentration, and all monoterpene concentrations remained unaffected.

Keywords:

• Model room
• relative humidity
• temperature
• VOC
• wooden furniture

The authors acknowledge the financial support from IKEA of Sweden AB.