Study on a new correlation between diffusion coefficient and temperature in porous building materials

The diffusion coefficient (D) and partition coefficient (Kma) are the two important parameters used to predict the volatile organic compound (VOC) emission or sorption characteristics in porous building materials. D and Kma may be strongly affected by temperature (T). In this study, we derived a new correlation between D and T based on the assumption that molecular diffusion is dominant, and evaluated this correlation using a series of existing experimental data. The modeling results using the new correlation agree well with the experimental data. The correlation would be useful for assessment of indoor air quality under different environmental (temperature) conditions.