- Author
- Martin, J. W. | Persily, A. K. | Guenther, F. R. | Nguyen, T. | Liggett, W. S., Jr. | Byrd, W. E. | Oakley, L.
- Title
- Materials-Science Based Approach to Phenol Emissions From a Flooring Material in an Office Building.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- Indoor Air Quality and Climate, 7th International Conference. Proceedings. Indoor Air '96. Volume 2. July 21-26, 1996, Nagoya, Japan, 109-114 p., 1996
- Keywords
- phenol | emissions | air quality | flooring | epoxy | office buildings | sampling | thermogravimetric analysis
- Identifiers
- epoxy floor-leveling material; results from studies of leveling material
- Abstract
- After several years of indoor air quality complaints in an office building, it was hypothesized that phenol emissions from an epoxy floor-leveling material were the source of the complaints. A materials-science based study was performed to ascertain whether phenol, or any other volatile organic compound, was being emitted from the floor-leveling material. The chemical composition and physical properties of the leveling material were determined using a variety of analytical procedures typical of a materials-science based approach. It was concluded that the floor-leveling material contained phenol, and that the measured concentrations ranged from 0.25% to 0.52% of the material's mass. Several strategies for mitigating the phenol emissions were considered, and it was concluded that the most practical strategy would be to remove the floor-leveling material from the building and replace it with a portland cement-based material.