Abstract
Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from different types of furniture coatings have been investigated by test chamber studies under dynamic conditions. A total of 150 VOCs could be identified in the chamber air. Compound groups occurring most often were aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, glycols and esters. Special attention was paid to the detection of typical components of coating materials such as acrylic monomers, photoinitiators and other additives. The TVOC‐values, measured after a preconditioning period of 20 days, ranged from 4 μg/m3 to 1288 μg/m3 with an arithmetic mean of 173.9 μg/m3 and a median 60.0 μg/m3. The highest chamber concentrations of individual components were found for some solvent residues such as n‐butylacetate, butylgly‐col, 1‐butanol‐3‐methoxy‐acetate and butyldiglycolacetate. The results have shown that furniture may contribute significantly to indoor air pollution. The calculated emission factors were comparable with data reported for other indoor materials.con