Research on the Effects of Environmental Factors on the Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds from Plastic Track

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 19;20(3):1828. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031828.

Abstract

The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from a plastic track can cause stimulation and damage to the human body; the temperature, relative humidity (RH) and air exchange rate (AER) have a significant impact on the release of VOCs from materials. In this study, we used a 0.1 m3 environmental chamber; a qualitative and quantitative analysis of VOCs released from a plastic track was conducted by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with a temperature range of 23-60 °C, RH of 5-65% and AER of 0.5-1.5 h-1. The formation rate, the speciation, the nature of the main compounds and the mass concentration of VOCs under different environmental conditions were determined. It is shown that with the increase of temperature, the concentration of some main VOCs gradually increased and the Calkane and Coxygenated organic compounds were larger by 736.13 μg·m-3 and 984.22 μg·m-3 at 60 °C, respectively. Additionally, with the increase of RH, the concentration of different VOCs gradually increased. Nonetheless, the change in RH had no effect on the concentration percentage of different VOCs in the total VOC. With the increase in AER, the concentration of different main VOCs significantly declined, as did the VOC detection rate. When the AER was increased from 0.5 h-1 to 1.5 h-1, the Calkane decreased by 206.74-254.21 μg·m-3 and Coxygenated organic compounds decreased by 73.06-241.82 μg·m-3, and the number of non-detected VOC monomers increased from 1 to 7-12 species. The conclusion is that the increase in temperature and RH can promote the emission of VOCs from a plastic track, while increasing AER significantly reduces the concentrations of VOCs. Environmental temperature mainly causes the changes in the concentrations of different VOCs, and RH is a main factor leading to the variation in the detection rate of main VOCs. Overall, the release of VOCs from a plastic track is affected by environmental temperature, AER and RH in sequence. Through this paper, we clarify the effects of ambient temperature, RH and AER on the emission of VOCs from a plastic track, and furthermore, we determine the release characteristics of plastic track VOCs.

Keywords: emission characteristics; plastic track; sporting environment; volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants* / analysis
  • Alkanes
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Humans
  • Plastics / analysis
  • Volatile Organic Compounds* / analysis

Substances

  • Volatile Organic Compounds
  • Air Pollutants
  • Plastics
  • Alkanes

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2022M722491), the Scientific Research Program Project of Department of Education of Hubei Provincial in 2021 (Grant No. Q20214102), the Philosophy and Social Science Research Project of Department of Education of Hubei Provincial in 2021 (Grant No. 21D088), the Research Team Foundation of Wuhan Sports University in 2021 (Grant No. 21KT17, 21KT02), the Hubei Science and Technology Innovation Platform—R&D testing sharing platform for harmful substances in sports venues of Hubei Province (Grant No. 2019BFC588), the East Lake Scholars Sponsorship Program of Wuhan Sports University and the 14th Five-Year-Plan Advantageous and Characteristic Disciplines (Groups) of Colleges and Universities in Hubei Province (2021.05).