title: Adsorption of Phthalates on Impervious Indoor Surfaces.
abstract: Sorption of semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) onto interior surfaces, often referred to as the "sink effect", and their subsequent re-emission significantly affect the fate and transport of indoor SVOCs and the resulting human exposure. Unfortunately, experimental challenges and the large number of SVOC/surface combinations have impeded progress in understanding sorption of SVOCs on indoor surfaces. An experimental approach based on a diffusion model was thus developed to determine the surface/air partition coefficient K of di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) on typical impervious surfaces including aluminum, steel, glass, and acrylic. The results indicate that surface roughness plays an important role in the adsorption process. Although larger data sets are needed, the ability to predict K could be greatly improved by establishing the nature of the relationship between surface roughness and K for clean indoor surfaces. Furthermore, different surfaces exhibit nearly identical K values after being exposed to kitchen grime with values that are close to those reported for the octanol/air partition coefficient. This strongly supports the idea that interactions between gas-phase DEHP and soiled surfaces have been reduced to interactions with an organic film. Collectively, the results provide an improved understanding of equilibrium partitioning of SVOCs on impervious surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Yaoxing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Clara M A
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Eichler
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.|Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences (ICTAS) , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Weinan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Leng
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Steven S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Linsey C
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3628-6891
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Marr
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, United States.
authors.forename: John C
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2965-9557
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Little
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor; D004051:Diethylhexyl Phthalate; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009930:Organic Chemicals
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D004051:Diethylhexyl Phthalate