Determination of uptake rates of volatile organic compounds by 24-hour passive sampling and their application in enclosed ship cabin environments

Abstract

Effective and reliable uptake rates are crucial for applying passive samplers in monitoring gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, there is currently a lack of data regarding the 24-h passive uptake rates of VOCs for workplace and environmental monitoring. This study aims to address this gap by utilizing a Tenax TA-based sampling tube to investigate the 24-h uptake rates of 25 kinds of VOCs in enclosed ship cabin environments. The results reveal that the uptake rate of VOCs ranges from 0.32 to 0.44 mL/min. A relationship between diffusive uptake rates and the boiling point of the compounds is proposed. The variation in uptake rate under different sampling durations was examined. The difference in uptake rate between 24 h and 8 h was smaller than that between 24 h and 6 days, with an average difference of 20%. In addition, the indoor uptake rate obtained in this study was compared with the outdoor uptake rates in the literature, and results showed that the outdoor uptake rate was generally higher than the indoor uptake rate, but the difference decreased when the sampling duration was longer. Field measurement was conducted by utilizing the measured uptake rates to characterize VOC pollution in both living and engine cabins in actual ships. This study contributes to facilitating the evaluation of environmental daily average concentrations in enclosed ship cabins, which will be helpful for assessing the effectiveness of air pollution control systems or epidemiological studies in ships.