Experimental method development for estimating solid-phase diffusion coefficients and material/air partition coefficients of SVOCs

The solid-phase diffusion coefficient (Dm) and material/air partition coefficient (Kma) are key parameters for characterizing the sources and transport of semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in the indoor environment. In this work, a new experimental method was developed to estimate parameters Dm and Kma. The SVOCs chosen for study were polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, including PCB-52, PCB-66, PCB-101, PCB-110, and PCB-118. The test materials included polypropylene, high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyether ether ketone, glass, stainless steel and concrete. Two 53-L environmental chambers were connected in series, with the relatively stable SVOCs source in the source chamber and the test materials, made as small “buttons”, in the test chamber. Prior to loading the test chamber with the test materials, the test chamber had been dosed with SVOCs for 12 days to “coat” the chamber walls. During the tests, the material buttons were removed from the test chamber at different exposure times to determine the amount of SVOC absorbed by the buttons. SVOC concentrations at the inlet and outlet of the test chamber were also monitored. The data were used to estimate the partition and diffusion coefficients by fitting a sink model to the experimental data. The parameters obtained were employed to predict the accumulation of SVOCs in the sink materials using an existing mass transfer model. The model prediction agreed reasonably well with the experimental data.