Influence of application of sorptive building materials on decrease in indoor toluene concentration

Abstract

In order to improve indoor air quality, the interest in and the use of sorptive building materials that decrease the concentration of an indoor air pollutant have increased. The use of sorptive building materials is one way to decrease the concentration of an indoor pollutant that can adversely affect human health. In this study, we evaluated the effects of sorptive building materials applied to a wall on the decrease in the concentration of toluene emitted from the flooring. We also examined how the air exchange rate of the room, the loading factor of the sorptive materials, and the mass transfer coefficient influenced the sorptive performance; these effects were well reproduced experimentally with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results show that sorptive building materials have a fairly strong effect on the decrease in toluene concentrations in rooms and that this effect can be expected in real-world scenarios. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.