title: Emission and burnt smell characteristics from combustion experiments with defined materials.
abstract: Typical burnt smell often results from fire accidents or in general from incomplete combustion. Recently, eleven compounds were identified, which are basically responsible for this odour. When analyzing residual materials from different fire accidents, the pattern that means the relative ratios of these compounds among each other varies strongly, although always causing a burnt smelling. Consequently, lab-scale combustion experiments were performed in order to investigate the influence of defined materials from domestic environment on the burnt-smell fingerprints. Furthermore, the occurrence of other polar and higher molecular combustion products was studied. It was found that under good combustion conditions, the burnt smell patterns resulting from the single materials were astonishingly consistent, mostly dominated by methylphenols or naphthalene. No correlation could be found between these 'fingerprints' and combustion product groups identified by GC/MS-screenings. LC/MS/MS-measurements especially pointed at the existence of higher molecular weight phenolic and acidic functionalized compounds in the combustion residues.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry, Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, Hagenring 30, Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Hubertus
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wichmann
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heitmann
authors.forename: Shohifah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Annur
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vogt
authors.forename: Muefit A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bahadir
mesh_terms: D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009812:Odorants / Q000032:analysis*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals