Quality assessment of building products by the micro-scale headspace vial (MHV) method and HS-SPME for monitoring the emission of hydrolysis products from phthalates

2-Ethyl hexanol from hydrolysed di-octyl-phthalate (DOP) may cause a secondary emission from building products such as PVC carpets and/or glues causing indoor air pollution. In the present study, a micro-scale headspace vial (MHV) method, earlier developed by us, was refined to study the degradation of DOP and di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) in humid and alkaline environments. By HS-SPME it was possible to extract the degradation products at low temperature, 35 °C, which limits the risks of unwanted degradation during sampling. Three different types of HS-SPME fibres were evaluated. The carbowax-divinyl benzene (CW/DVB) fibre had the highest extraction capacity of 2-ethyl-1-hexanol and 5-nonanol. Although significantly shorter extraction times could be used with the 7 μm and 30 μm poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fibres, the CW/DVB fibre was found to be the most suitable for these alcohols. Furthermore, it was found that pH of the alkaline environment strongly influences the formation of degradation products from DOP and DINP.