Volatile organic compounds in aircraft cabin: Measurements and correlations between compounds

• VOC concentrations in 14 flights were measured.
• Correlations between VOCs were analyzed and some VOC pairs showed good correlation.
• The results could be useful for identifying possible VOC sources in the aircraft cabin.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an important class of air pollutants in aircraft cabin. The present study aimed to measure the VOC concentrations and determine possible correlations between selected VOCs in samples of 14 domestic flights in China. Alkanes and alkenes, aromatics, and aldehydes were the most abundant compounds on 9 flights, 4 flights, and 1 flight, respectively. Nineteen primary VOCs were quantified, and the mean concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, p-xylene (represent m,p-xylene), and o-xylene of all flights were 14.78, 29.84, 7.04, 4.83, and 4.55 μg/m3, respectively. The contributions of VOC groups to the total VOC concentration differed on each flight. Correlations between the 19 VOCs were conducted and only a few pairs were found to be strongly correlated (p ≤ 0.001). Strong correlations were obtained between ethylbenzene and p-xylene, p-xylene and o-xylene, decanal and nonanal, and dodecane and undecane for all flights. This work will provide the foundation for future studies to identify the primary sources of VOCs in aircraft cabin air.