Measurement of polyurethane foam - air partition coefficients for semivolatile organic compounds as a function of temperature: Application to passive air sampler monitoring

•Partitioning from air to polyurethane foam (PUF) has been measured directly.•Target compounds were polycyclic aromatic compounds and organochlorine pesticides.•KPUF-AIR partition coefficients were determined over the temperature range +5 to +35 °C.•This improves our understanding of the performance of PUF disk passive air samplers.

Polyurethane foam - air partition coefficients (KPUF-air) for 9 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 10 alkyl-substituted PAHs, 4 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and dibenzothiophene were measured as a function of temperature over the range 5 °C-35 °C, using a generator column approach. Enthalpies of PUF-to-air transfer (ΔHPUF-air, kJ/mol) were determined from the slopes of log KPUF-air versus 1000/T (K), and have an average value of 81.2 ± 7.03 kJ/mol. The log KPUF-air values at 22 °C ranged from 4.99 to 7.25. A relationship for log KPUF-air versus log KOA was shown to agree with a previous relationship based on only polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and derived from long-term indoor uptake study experiments. The results also confirm that the existing KOA-based model for predicting log KPUF-air values is accurate. This new information is important in the derivation of uptake profiles and effective air sampling volumes for PUF disk samplers so that results can be reported in units of concentration in air.