Emissions of volatile organic compounds from interior materials of vehicles

Abstract

People spend a substantial amount of daily time in vehicle environments being exposed to variety of airborne chemicals. High concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) inside vehicle cabins have been of increasing concern owing to various health risks. Yet, there is a limited knowledge and data about VOC emissions from interior vehicular materials. In a controlled small-scale ventilated chamber, we quantified dynamic VOC emission characteristics for four commonly-used vehicular interior materials (leather coat of seats (LCS), dashboard (DB), pillar (PI) and ceiling (CE)) exposed to the two interior air temperatures (25 and 60 °C). The emission strengths of VOCs increased with temperature elevation by 3–36 times, but not linearly for every group of compounds. The level of individual VOC compounds emitted was a strong function of time, indicating the importance of a continuous sampling approach. Correlation analysis of individual VOCs revealed different emission mechanisms among the major compounds. The source apportionment results indicated that the LCS materials were associated with emissions of aromatics, carbonyls and other VOCs at 25 °C, while special attentions should be paid to the DB and the PI for their predominant contributions to extremely elevated level of aliphatic compounds at 60 °C. The results of this study are potentially useful for database of VOC emissions from vehicular materials, development of improved standard testing methods and for improved modeling of VOC emissions.