Abstract
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) reduce indoor air quality. They are associated with negative effects on human health and wellbeing. In terms of legislation requirements and consumer pressure, VOCs from engineered wood materials are reduced due to use of water based additives and adhesives in their formulation. Therefore, the main source of VOCs remains the raw material—the wood itself. Alternatives to wood strands, annual plant materials, are tested nowadays due to their advantages: The short cycle; the raw material is sourced naturally and can be produced more sustainably; and faster sequestering atmospheric carbon. The aim of this work was to investigate volatile organic compounds emitted from untreated and chemically treated hemp shive and compare the emission characteristics to soft wood strands. Simple, yet effective chemical treatments, like tartaric acid, citric acid and sodium bicarbonate were used in order to reduce VOC emissions. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) combined with headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was used to analyse the volatile compounds emissions. Specific VOCs like acetic acid; Benzaldehyde; hexanal, α-, β-pinenes; limonene and camphene were monitored before and after the treatments. Non-target screening was performed to identify the most responsible compound for differentiation of samples according to their treatments. Comparing untreated samples, spruce strands showed highest amounts of total VOCs, while untreated hemp shive showed the lowest. Further, due to the chemical modification of hemp woody core components, such as hemicelluloses, lignin, and extractives, the key VOCs showed significant changes leading to an increase in the amount of total emissions.
Highlights
Due to a large amount of building materials based on engineered wood, it is nowadays increasingly used in building constructions and their exposure to indoor air, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from wood based materials is recognized as one of the factors to influence indoor air quality [1,2]
Hemp shives were subjected to simple chemical treatments, and their VOCs were analyzed and compared to untreated hemp shives and spruce strands
Target compounds (Table 2) were selected based on a list published in ISO 16000-6 (Annex A) dealing with the building products’ VOC emissions in indoor air [31]
Summary
Due to a large amount of building materials based on engineered wood, it is nowadays increasingly used in building constructions and their exposure to indoor air, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from wood based materials is recognized as one of the factors to influence indoor air quality [1,2]. As people in the 21st century spend a considerable part of their life-time indoors, in certain conditions, they are predisposed to the sick building syndrome [3]. Inhabitants of poorly ventilated buildings are more prone to suffer from various symptoms like headaches as: Eye, nose or throat irritations; dry coughs; allergy reactions; dry and itching skin; nonspecific hypersensitivity; insomnia; dizziness and nausea or difficulty in concentrating; and tiredness. The intense odors may have a negative psychological influence as well [4]. Increasing concerns of human wellbeing are strictly connected to indoor environmental quality. The selection of building materials plays a key role in its Materials 2019, 12, 2026; doi:10.3390/ma12122026 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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