Spatial and temporal scales of variability for indoor air constituents

Pascale S J Lakey; Youngbo Won; David Shaw; Freja F Østerstrøm; James Mattila; Emily Reidy; Brandon Bottorff; Colleen Rosales; Chen Wang; Laura Ampollini; Shan Zhou; Atila Novoselac; Tara F Kahan; Peter F DeCarlo; Jonathan P D Abbatt; Philip S Stevens; Delphine K Farmer; Nicola Carslaw; Donghyun Rim; Manabu Shiraiwa

doi:10.1038/s42004-021-00548-5

Spatial and temporal scales of variability for indoor air constituents

Commun Chem. 2021 Aug 12;4(1):110. doi: 10.1038/s42004-021-00548-5.

Authors

Pascale S J Lakey^#¹, Youngbo Won^#², David Shaw³, Freja F Østerstrøm³, James Mattila⁴, Emily Reidy⁵, Brandon Bottorff⁵, Colleen Rosales⁵, Chen Wang^{6

7}, Laura Ampollini⁸, Shan Zhou^{9

10}, Atila Novoselac¹¹, Tara F Kahan^{9

12}, Peter F DeCarlo¹³, Jonathan P D Abbatt⁶, Philip S Stevens⁵, Delphine K Farmer⁴, Nicola Carslaw³, Donghyun Rim¹⁴, Manabu Shiraiwa¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
² Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
³ Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, UK.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁷ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
⁸ Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
¹¹ Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.
¹² Department of Chemistry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
¹³ Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. dxr51@psu.edu.
¹⁵ Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA. m.shiraiwa@uci.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Historically air constituents have been assumed to be well mixed in indoor environments, with single point measurements and box modeling representing a room or a house. Here we demonstrate that this fundamental assumption needs to be revisited through advanced model simulations and extensive measurements of bleach cleaning. We show that inorganic chlorinated products, such as hypochlorous acid and chloramines generated via multiphase reactions, exhibit spatial and vertical concentration gradients in a room, with short-lived ⋅OH radicals confined to sunlit zones, close to windows. Spatial and temporal scales of indoor constituents are modulated by rates of chemical reactions, surface interactions and building ventilation, providing critical insights for better assessments of human exposure to hazardous pollutants, as well as the transport of indoor chemicals outdoors.

Abstract

Grants and funding