Release Of Volatile Organic Compounds Research Articles

Plastic Waste Degradation in Landfill Conditions: The Problem with Microplastics, and Their Direct and Indirect Environmental Effects.

As landfilling is a common method for utilizing plastic waste at its end-of-life, it is important to present knowledge about the environmental and technical complications encountered during plastic disposal, and the formation and spread of microplastics (MPs) from landfills, to better understand the direct and indirect effects of MPs on pollution. Plastic waste around active and former landfills remains a source of MPs. The landfill output consists of leachate and gases created by combined biological, chemical, and physical processes. Thus, small particles and/or fibers, including MPs, are transported to the surroundings by air and by leachate. In this study, a special focus was given to the potential for the migration and release of toxic substances as the aging of plastic debris leads to the release of harmful volatile organic compounds via oxidative photodegradation. MPs are generally seen as the key vehicles and accumulators of non-biodegradable pollutants. Because of their small size, MPs are quickly transported over long distances throughout their surroundings. With large specific surface areas, they have the ability to absorb pollutants, and plastic monomers and additives can be leached out of MPs; thus, they can act as both vectors and carriers of pollutants in the environment.

The volatile organic compounds release from acid-alkali pretreated moso bamboo during heat treatment

The volatile organic compounds release from acid-alkali pretreated moso bamboo during heat treatment

Reviews and syntheses: VOC emissions from soil cover in boreal and temperate natural ecosystems of the Northern Hemisphere

Abstract. Plant litter decomposition is a biogeochemical process underlying the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems and between the biosphere and the atmosphere. For the latter, it serves as one of the most important sources of not only carbon dioxide but also volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have not yet been taken into account in atmospheric models for various purposes and scales, from local to regional and global. This review owes its appearance to the growing interest in decaying leaf litter and living forest floor cover as a hitherto unaccounted for source of photochemically active components of the Earth's atmosphere. This interest is understandable if we take into account the size of this source: for terrestrial ecosystems, the global production of litter is 10 × 1016 g dry matter. The living vegetation cover of the soil on the forest floor, mainly comprising mosses and small shrubs, should also be regarded as a potentially significant source of atmospheric VOCs, as its total biomass may be comparable to or even exceed that of canopy foliage, which is considered the main source of these compounds. This implies a need to integrate these sources into biogenic VOC emission models, which in turn requires extensive research on these sources to understand the conditions and factors that influence VOC emissions. The decomposition of leaf litter, accompanied by the release of VOCs, is a very complex process that depends on a number of biological, chemical and physical environmental factors, but little information is currently available on the role each plays. Equally limited is information on the chemical composition and emission rates of VOCs from these sources. The review focuses on the main gaps in our knowledge of the sources of biogenic VOCs under the forest canopy, and we are confident that filling them will make a significant contribution to solving such an important task as closing the global organic carbon budget.

Elicitor-Induced VOC Emission by Grapevine Leaves: Characterisation in the Vineyard.

The present study is aimed at determining whether leaf volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are good markers of the grapevine response to defence elicitors in the field. It was carried out in two distinct French vineyards (Burgundy and Bordeaux) over 3 years. The commercial elicitor Bastid® (Syngenta, Saint-Sauveur, France) (COS-OGA) was first used to optimise the VOCs’ capture in the field; by bagging stems together with a stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) sensor. Three elicitors (Bastid®, copper sulphate and methyl jasmonate) were assessed at three phenological stages of the grapevines by monitoring stilbene phytoalexins and VOCs. Stilbene production was low and variable between treatments and phenological stages. VOCs—particularly terpenes—were induced by all elicitors. However, the response profiles depended on the type of elicitor, the phenological stage and the vineyard, and no sole common VOC was found. The levels of VOC emissions discriminated between weak (Bastid® and copper sulphate) and strong (methyl jasmonate) inducers. Ocimene isomers were constitutively present in the overall blends of the vineyards and increased by the elicitors’ treatments, whilst other VOCs were newly released throughout the growing seasons. Nonetheless, the plant development and climate factors undoubtedly influenced the release and profiles of the leaf VOCs.

Covalent grafting diazotized black phosphorus with ferrocene oligomer towards smoke suppression and toxicity reduction.

In comparison with the thermal hazard of polymers, noxious smoke and gas produced by the combustion of polymers make the environment self-purification a huge challenge. As a new type of a highly effective flame retardant, black phosphorus (BP) can effectively decrease the thermal hazard of polymers, but its performances in smoke suppression and toxicity reduction are unsatisfactory. In this article, a method of covalently grafting diazotized BP with a ferrocene oligomer was applied to promote the smoke suppression and toxicity reduction efficiency of BP. In our work, the BP-NH nanomaterials with a mass of amino groups on the surface were acquired by diazotizing the BP. Then, the BP-Fe was obtained by covalently grafting the ferrocene chloride salt and nitrogen-containing heterocycles on the surface of BP. The smoke production rate (SPR) and total smoke production (TSP) values of the epoxy resin (EP) decreased by 49.8% and 52.5% with the addition of 2wt% BP-Fe, respectively. In comparison with previous studies, this work was far more effective than the previous work in smoke suppression and flame retardant. The release of toxic gases (CO and HCN) and volatile organic compounds in the EP was also effectively inhibited at the same time. In addition, the storage modulus and tensile strength of nanocomposites increased by 35.1% and 27.2% with the addition of 1wt% BP-Fe. This work also provides a new idea on how to simultaneously strengthen the toxic smoke suppression, mechanical properties, and flame retardant of polymer materials.

Characterizing the emission behaviors of cumulative VOCs from automotive solvent-based paint sludge.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) diffused from paint sludge are potential hazard contributing significantly to environmental pollution and exposure to them can cause severe health issues. In this paper, a diffusion-controlled model was firstly developed for characterizing the emission behaviors of cumulative VOCs from automotive solvent-based paint sludge based on the worst field management scenario. The presented model is characterized by two key parameters: the diffusion coefficient (Dm) and the initial emittable concentration (Cm,0), which can be simultaneously obtained by our proposed ER-history method. Four major components were detected including 1-butanol, butyl acetate and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and 1-ethyl-4-methylbenzene. In addition, the model was validated by using environmental data in a ventilated test chamber, proving that the model is reliable and convincing. However, relative deviations of 1-butanol and butyl acetate are larger than those of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and 1-ethyl-4-methylbenzene, indicating that the model is more accurate for predicting hydrophobic VOCs release than those of hydrophilic VOCs. Besides, an increase in Cm,0 and Dm tends to enhance VOCs cumulation release. Our studies provide new insight into experimental designs for rapid model parameters measurement and a sound basis for estimating VOCs cumulative release from paint sludge as well as for hazardous waste.

The Investigation of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Emissions in Environmentally Friendly Modified Asphalt

Asphalt pavements are increasingly used in road engineering; however, the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from asphalt can harm the environment and humans. In this study, different types of modifiers are added to 70# virgin asphalt to prepare environmentally friendly modified asphalt, and its performance is analyzed. Through the self-designed simple asphalt heating-emission collection and detection device, the inhibition effect of different types of modifier combinations on VOCs in the asphalt emmissions was explored. Then, VOCs emission curves of modified asphalt at different temperatures were studied, and finally the basic physical properties of the environmentally friendly modified asphalt were tested. The test results showed that the optimal modifier combination was 5% activated carbon and 3% surfactant, in which the VOCs and the peak value of asphalt heating emissions were only 1385 min·ppm and 86 ppm, respectively, which represented the best VOCs suppression effect of other groups. At the same time, the modified asphalt with optimal additives improved the high-temperature performance of 70# base asphalt and did not affect the storage stability.

Release of VOCs, Gasses, and Bacteria from Contaminated Landings and Creeks of Ogeechee River Basin.

River landings are common public grounds, visited by many people every day. The aftermath of visiting these places may be unsettling since much trash is left behind and scattered throughout. The litter collects and with each rain or high wind, it has a better chance of ending up in our streams, rivers, creeks, and eventually our oceans. The main purpose of this study was to measure both air and water quality throughout the Ogeechee River basin in South Georgia to determine how each was impacted by trash. Ammonia, methane, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) along with temperature and humidity were also measured for air quality. Water quality parameters for this study were derived from the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream method. Conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, water temperature, and Escherichia coli counts were taken every two weeks at three locations: Rocky Ford Landing along the Ogeechee River, Rocks River Landing on the Canoochee River, and Little Lotts Creek located in the center of Statesboro, Georgia. Each Monday, from 17 January 2022 to 17 May 2022, selected air pollutants were sampled ten times at each location. The data show higher trends in air and water pollution where trash is found—the highest with Rocks River Landing and Little Lotts Creek showing trends supporting the hypothesis that trash may impact air and water quality in these areas. The potential contamination of river landings and creeks may contribute to increased levels of airborne and waterborne gas levels and microbial loads near the river water surfaces.

Understanding the early-stage release of volatile organic compounds from rapeseed oil during deep-frying of tubers by targeted and omics-inspired approaches using PTR-MS and gas chromatography

During deep-frying, a plethora of volatile products is emitted with the fumes. These compounds could act as oil quality indicators and change the indoor air composition leading to health risks for occupants. The presented experiments focus on deep-frying of different tubers in rapeseed oil at different frying temperatures. Here, two scenarios for real-time monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) were proposed. The first, targeted, involved the application of gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The second, omics-inspired, involved the use of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) along with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and molecular networking algorithm as a complementary tool to the PTR-MS analysis. In a targeted approach, it was shown that the emission profile of pentanal and hexanal depends on the frying temperature and as the temperature increases, a sudden release of these compounds can be observed in the first minutes of frying. Meanwhile, using an omics-inspired protocol enables finding the relation between 1,4-heptadienal and 2-heptanone, octanal and limonene emissions. Using both approaches it was possible to record real-time changes in emission profiles of various oils’ degradation products. It was also observed that the emission profiles of VOCs are strictly related to the frying temperature and the type of fried tuber.

Phosphorus accelerate the sulfur cycle by promoting the release of malodorous volatile organic sulfur compounds from Microcystis in freshwater lakes

Volatile organic sulfur compounds (VSCs) released by algae are of great significance in sulfur cycle, climate regulation and biological information transmission, and they also caused taste and odor in freshwaters. However, the categories, sources, and environmental regulatory factors of VSCs in freshwaters were less known. Here, we show that eight common freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis, which bloom in freshwaters over the world, are found to be important producers of VSCs. Dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and isopropyl methyl sulfide (IPMS) are the main VSCs with the highest concentrations 184.81 nmol/L, 162.01 nmol/L and 101.55 nmol/L, respectively. The amount of VSCs released from those Microcystis varied greatly, M. elabens, M. panniformis and M. flos-aquae released the largest amount of VSCs (1260.52 nmol S/L, 1154.75 nmol S/L and 670.58 nmol S/L), and M. wesenbergii had the smallest release amount. We also found for the first time that phosphorus (P) was one of the important factors for the regulation VSCs from most Microcystis. P can elevate the release of DMS by promoting the biomass and DMS yields of most Microcystis in the range 0.05 mg/L to 0.5 mg/L. Similar results were also found in 16 lakes at three different spatiotemporal scales. Overall, we revealed that the common freshwater Microcystis were able to release diverse thioethers, and the major VSCs were significantly influenced by water P concentrations. In the context of global freshwater eutrophication and Microcystis bloom, freshwater cyanobacteria driven sulfur cycle and water odor will probably be further strengthened.

Preparation of a strong and multiple-function soybean flour adhesive via the construction of tannin microspheres with a core–shell structure

The preparation of a soybean flour adhesive with good bonding and prepressing performance, toughness, mildew resistance, and fire retardancy to address the problem of formaldehyde pollution is crucial; however, it also presents a challenge. The core–shell structure can achieve various properties by tailoring-making the core–shell composition. In this study, a core–shell structure HBPA@TA with hyperbranched polyamide (HBPA) as the core and tannin (TA) as the shell was prepared and used to modify SF adhesives. The results showed that the pyrogallol group of the tannin shell endowed the adhesive with excellent prepressing performance (0.75 MPa of prepressing intension), toughness, and coating performance, rendering the adhesive more suitable for plywood fabrication. Owing to the dense tannins in HBPA@TA, the resultant adhesive exhibited superior mildew resistance (12 d). After closed-mouth placement for 12 d, the prepressing intension was reduced by 17.3% to 0.62 MPa, which still met the usage requirement. The wet shear strength of the plywood prepared using the resultant adhesive was 1.05 MPa—that is, 133.3% higher than that of the unmodified SF adhesive. The synthesized adhesive also showed antibacterial properties (inhibition zone = 8 mm), flame retardancy (LOI = 32.3%), and volatile organic compound release (6.86*106 mg/m2·h) lower than those of commonly used urea–formaldehyde resins and epoxy resins.

Plant Responses to Herbivory, Wounding, and Infection.

Plants have various self-defense mechanisms against biotic attacks, involving both physical and chemical barriers. Physical barriers include spines, trichomes, and cuticle layers, whereas chemical barriers include secondary metabolites (SMs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Complex interactions between plants and herbivores occur. Plant responses to insect herbivory begin with the perception of physical stimuli, chemical compounds (orally secreted by insects and herbivore-induced VOCs) during feeding. Plant cell membranes then generate ion fluxes that create differences in plasma membrane potential (Vm), which provokes the initiation of signal transduction, the activation of various hormones (e.g., jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and ethylene), and the release of VOCs and SMs. This review of recent studies of plant–herbivore–infection interactions focuses on early and late plant responses, including physical barriers, signal transduction, SM production as well as epigenetic regulation, and phytohormone responses.

Gene-Regulated Release of Distinctive Volatile Organic Compounds from Stressed Living Cells.

Breath-borne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been increasingly studied as non-invasive biomarkers in both medical diagnosis and environmental health research. Recently, changes in breath-borne VOC fingerprints were demonstrated in rats and humans following pollutant exposures. In this study, the eukaryotic model Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used to study the release of cellular VOCs resulting from toxicant exposures (i.e., O3, H2O2, and CO2) and its underlying biological mechanism. Our results showed that different toxicant exposures caused the release of distinctive VOC profiles of yeast cells. The levels of ethyl acetate and ethyl n-propionate were altered in response to all the toxicants used in this study and could thus be targeted for future environmental toxicity monitoring. The RNA-seq results revealed significant changes in the metabolic or signaling pathways related to the ribosome, carbohydrate, and amino acid metabolisms after exposures. Notably, the shift from glycolysis to the pentose phosphate pathway of carbohydrate metabolism and the inhabitation of the aspartate pathway in the lysine synthesis was essential to the cellular antioxidation by providing reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). The reprogrammed metabolisms could have resulted in the observed changes of VOCs released, e.g., the production of ethyl acetate for detoxification from yeast cells. This study provides further evidence that VOCs released from living organisms could be used to monitor and guard against toxic exposures while providing better mechanistic insights of the changes in breath-borne VOCs previously observed in rats and humans exposed to air toxicants.

Evaluation of Typical Volatile Organic Compounds Levels in New Vehicles under Static and Driving Conditions.

In modern societies, the air quality in vehicles has received extensive attention because a lot of time is spent within the indoor air compartment of vehicles. In order to further understand the level of air quality under different conditions in new vehicles, the vehicle interior air quality (VIAQ) in new vehicles with three different brands was investigated under static and driving conditions, respectively. Air sampling and analysis are conducted under the requirement of HJ/T 400-2007. Static vehicle tests demonstrate that with the increasing of vehicle interior air temperature in sunshine conditions, a higher concentration and different types of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) release from the interior materials than that in the environment test chamber, including alkanes, alcohols, ketones, benzenes, alkenes, aldehydes, esters and naphthalene. Driving vehicle tests demonstrate that the concentration of VOCs and total VOCs (TVOC) inside vehicles exposed to high temperatures will be reduced to the same level as that in the environment test chamber after a period of driving. The air pollutants mainly include alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons. However, the change trends of VOCs and TVOC vary under different conditions according to various kinds of factors, such as vehicle model, driving speed, air exchange rate, temperature, and types of substance with different boiling points inside the vehicles.

Carbon Footprint of Anesthesia: Comment

We read with great interest the recent article by McGain et al. entitled “Carbon Footprint of General, Regional, and Combined Anesthesia for Total Knee Replacements.”1 We congratulate the authors for their meticulous analysis of the factors that contribute to carbon emissions including less commonly included factors such as variable electricity sources, and for sharing their established sustainable practices with the Anesthesiology community.However, carbon emissions are only one consideration when evaluating environmentally sustainable practice. The authors’ life cycle analysis does not include the carbon-free (but still harmful) impact of single-use plastics. As plastic does not readily degrade, it releases a negligible amount of carbon after reaching the landfill, thereby limiting its life cycle carbon contribution to its production process. Yet significant environmental harm occurs at plastic’s life cycle endpoint through landfill use, breakdown into microplastics,2 and the release of volatile organic compounds,3 all of which are not accounted for in carbon equivalents. Solely focusing on carbon emissions can lead to false conclusions being drawn about the sustainability of disposable plastics (1.1 to 3.3 kg CO2/kg, from the authors’ article) and resterilized reusable equipment (3.0 kg CO2/kg), with medical industries marketing single-use equipment as “carbon friendly.”4We posit that the total environmental impact of resterilizing and reusing equipment is eclipsed by the short- and long-term harm of single-use disposables. We applaud the authors’ commitment to reusable equipment, from anesthesia circuits to spinal kit trays, and encourage the reporting of any available safety data associated with this practice to assist others in reducing their reliance on single-use plastic.The authors declare no competing interests.

Recent advances in the construction of sustainable asphalt roads with recycled plastic

AbstractAlthough various polyolefins have intermittently been used for making roads since the 1980s, the recycling of plastic waste into roads raises new challenges related to the production, performance and durability of plastic‐modified asphalt. This review critically discusses the challenges of incorporating recycled plastics into bitumen/asphalt in terms of plastic selection, chemical compatibility, long‐term performance and potential contributions to fuming, microplastic pollution and contaminant leaching. Recent advances in the field are also presented and recommendations for future work to address current research and industrial gaps are suggested. Challenges related to the construction of plastic roads include the wide variability in the plastic composition and its properties after recycling, which not only affect the successful incorporation of plastic in bitumen but also impact the mechanical properties and environmental impact of the roads. The lack of representative testing procedures prevents an accurate understanding of the short‐ and long‐term performance of plastic roads in real conditions and the contribution of plastic roads to fuming and microplastic release remains unclear. However, promising laboratory‐based procedures have been developed to benchmark the release of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds, as well as microplastics, from recycled plastic‐modified asphalt against conventional polymer‐modified asphalts. Standards are still required to facilitate bitumen/asphalt modification by recycled plastics, meet the needs of bitumen/asphalt manufacturers and convince local authorities to foster the construction of plastic roads if proven to be a sustainable practice. © 2022 The Authors. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Industrial Chemistry.

Transcriptome analysis of the growth-promoting effect of volatile organic compounds produced by Microbacterium aurantiacum GX14001 on tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana)

BackgroundPlant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which promote plant growth.ResultsA potential PGPR strain GX14001 was isolated from marine samples, and the VOCs produced by GX14001 significantly promoted tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) growth in a plate experiment. Based on 16S rRNA sequence alignment and physiological and biochemical characterization, GX14001 was identified as Microbacterium aurantiacum. Comparative transcriptome analysis was conducted between GX14001 VOCs-treated tobacco and the control; it was found that 1286 genes were upregulated and 1088 genes were downregulated. Gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that upregulated genes were involved in three biological processes: polysaccharide metabolic, polysaccharide catabolic and carbohydrate metabolic. The downregulated genes were involved in six biological processes, namely cell redox homeostasis, cellular homeostasis, carbohydrate metabolic process, homeostatic process, obsolete electron transport, and regulation of biological quality. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis showed that 190 upregulated differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropyl biosynthesis, plant–pathogen interaction, and flavonoid biosynthesis. The 148 downregulated differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in plant hormone signal transduction and the metabolism of ascorbic, aldehyde, and pyruvate acids. Further analysis revealed that many genes were differentially expressed in the metabolic pathways of plant hormone signals, which were speculated to be the main reason why GX14001 VOCs promoted tobacco growth. To further study its regulatory mechanism, we found that GX14001 promoted plant growth through auxin, salicylic acid, and gibberellin in Arabidopsis mutant experiments.ConclusionThe VOCs produced by Microbacterium aurantiacum GX14001 may promote the growth of tobacco through the auxin, salicylic acid and gibberellin pathways.

Early identification of fungal leaf blight disease (Alternaria alternate) on Platycladus orientalis plants by using gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry

Platycladus orientalis (L.) is a typical urban greening tree in Asia, but the young leaves of P. orientalis arevulnerable to pathogenic fungi with hidden earlysigns. In this study, we investigated the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions of the Alternaria alternate infected P. orientalis plants, for the first time, using the gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) combined with chemometric approaches. Results showed that the A. alternate infection could reduce the VOCs release of P. orientalis leaves. The α-pinene and β-pinene emissions were down to 70% and 55% of controls on day 10, respectively. The destructive inoculated plants responded more to the A. alternate, bothin the VOCs emissions and the fungal growth. The (Z)-3-hexenol, n-hexanol, α-pinene, and β-pinene can serve as potential markers for infection discrimination, and their IMS signal intensities were calibrated with corresponding volume concentrations ranging from 0 to 250 μg/L. The PLS-DA model based on GC-IMS fingerprints can correctly classify at least 83% of samples in infection durations after fungal inoculation for the first 10 days. The PLSR model can predict the fungal colony counts in the P. orientalis needles (Rc2＞0.97 and Rp2＞0.92) with good robustness, whose RMSEP was lower than 0.68 (×106 CFU g−1) in predict set. In a word, the GC-IMS-based approach had the potential to evaluate A. alternate infection in P. orientalis, and the variation of potential markers can provide reference to its fungal infection monitor withmillisecond response in the forest.

Distribution and Release of Volatile Organic Sulfur Compounds in Yangcheng Lake

Volatile organic sulfur compounds (VOSCs) function as a water–atmosphere link in the global sulfur cycle. It is generally believed that the vast majority of VOSCs are released from the ocean. However, due to the pervasive eutrophication and pollution of inland waters, the VOSC production and emission in rivers, lakes and reservoirs are attracting more attention. In this study, the temporal and spatial distributions of three VOSCs, including methanethiol, Dimethyl sulfide, and dimethyl disulfide in Yangcheng Lake, a eutrophic shallow lake, are investigated monthly and seasonally. Results show that VOSCs are higher in summer and autumn, with the western region as a hotspot. Our results show a positive correlation between VOSC and phytoplankton biomass (p < 0.05). Interestingly, from algal phylum composition, all the phylum, except those with low biomass, played a positive effect on VOSCs’ concentration. We did not find any specific phylum or species of cyanobacteria that contributed solely to the VOSCs. The water-air effluxes of Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) are estimated by a stagnant film model. The DMS effluxes from Yangcheng Lakes were higher than deep lakes and similar to the ocean, indicating that VOSCs, particularly DMS, in those eutrophic shallow lakes were non-negligible.

Temperature dependency of VOCs release characteristics of asphalt materials under varying test conditions

Asphalt pavement is increasingly used in paving and roofing. However, the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from asphalt harm both the environment and humans. Various methods were applied to characterize the VOCs for better understanding and inhibiting. However, asphalt VOCs have huge heating temperature dependency, which makes the asphalt VOCs' characterization complicated. In this research, three kinds of heating conditions, thermal gravimetric (TG) analyzer, pyrolysis (PY) analyzer, and thermal desorber (TD), were compared to determine the temperature dependency of VOC release characteristics. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometer (GC-MS) were then coupled for VOC detection. Results indicated that the TG heating condition can surely simulate the volatilization of VOCs from some asphalt that is not in contact with air (no oxygen) during the actual construction process, while PY and TD represent the substances released by the asphalt due to the boiling point at a certain temperature and under the actual construction process, respectively. The components detected by TG heating condition are both large and small molecules, while PY and TD heating condition will detect large molecules or small molecules, respectively. The VOC composition results under various heating conditions reflect the chemical reaction law of asphalt molecules in the heating process. When heating asphalt binders to a higher temperature, macromolecular substances will gradually crack and oxidize into small molecular substances, sulfides and nitrides. With the increase of temperature, the change trend of VOC components under different conditions is different.