New method to determine gas-phase concentration of phthalate emitted from PVC floorings
Résumé
Phthalates are toxic ubiquitous indoor air pollutants widely used as plasticizers in many
materials such as vinyl flooring. One of the key parameter to estimate their emissions from
material sources is the gas-phase concentration adjacent to the material surface (y 0 ). In this
study, a static method using an emission cell coupled to solid-phase microextraction (SPME)
was developed to determine y 0 of phthalates and phthalates alternatives emitted by PVC
floorings. First, headspace-SPME screening allowed selecting four PVC floorings identified as
sources of diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP) and dibutyl terephthalate (DBTP). Second, an
atmosphere generation system using a PVC sample as compounds source and an active
sampling with Tenax tubes was developed for method calibration. Then, the emission cell-
SPME method was optimized and applied to the determination of the concentration y 0 of DiBP
and DBTP emitted by the selected PVC floorings. Results show detection limits in the µg/m 3
order level, and y 0 ranged from 2.2 to 5.5 µg/m 3 for DiBP and from 6.1 to 13.5 µg/m 3 for DBTP.