Sorption Isotherms of Acetone on Various Building Materials

Abstract

The physical modelling of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) suf fers a lack of sorption data for the most common Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) on building materials. This paper deals with an experimental facility that aimed to provide the sorption isotherms of gaseous contaminants on various materials. It was used to determine the sorp tion isotherms of acetone on chipboard, acrylic paint, and the gypsum core of commercially available gypsum board. After a brief introduction to fundamental princi ples of sorption, the experimental device is presented in detail. The results are reported and discussed, emphasis ing the description of the isotherm shapes and the possi ble partial reversibility of the sorption phenomenon for porous materials. The resulting curves are clearly non linear when dealing with gypsum and chipboard. More over, the sorption isotherms of acetone on gypsum were found to be different whether they were determined in the directions of increasing or decreasing concentra tions. Many questions remain unresolved about the phy sico-chemical processes involved, the sorption data to be considered for the purposes of IAQ modelling, and the way to account for the observed phenomenon when modelling the sorption/diffusion contaminant transport in building materials. — Copyright©2002 S. KargerAG, Basel