# VOC Emission Screening of Consumer Products in Microchambers: Comparison of Online PTR-MS and Offline TD–GC–MS Analysis

## TL;DR

This study compares two methods for measuring VOC emissions from consumer products in a controlled microchamber setup.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates the utility of PTR-MS and TD-GC-MS for screening short-term VOC emissions from consumer products.

## Key findings

- Both PTR-MS and TD-GC-MS detected similar emission curves for most VOCs within 30 minutes.
- Isophorone showed the highest peak concentrations, with PTR-MS detecting slightly higher levels than TD-GC-MS.
- TD-GC-MS was found to be effective for monitoring short-term emissions despite being an offline method.

## Abstract

Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from consumer
products
into the indoor air can lead to the inhalation exposure of consumers
to potentially hazardous chemicals. This investigation compared two
analytical approaches to quantitatively screen VOC emissions from
consumer products. A microchamber was used to examine the emissions
of two selected productsa rain poncho and a skipping ropeunder
controlled conditions (temperature, air change rate), with a focus
on the initial short-term emissions. Volatiles were sampled from the
chamber either on sorbent tubes, with subsequent offline analysis
by thermal desorption–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry
(TD-GC-MS), or with online analysis by proton transfer reaction–mass
spectrometry (PTR-MS). The products emitted several compounds of toxicological
relevance, including cyclohexanone, xylene, phenol, isophorone, and
naphthalene. Data from the two approaches yielded similar emission
curves for most compounds, with maximum concentrations observed within
30 min. Isophorone exhibited the highest peaks, with concentrations
of ∼1.2 mg m–3 and ∼1.6 mg m–3 from TD-GC-MS and PTR-MS analysis, respectively. Discrepancies in
the maximum concentrations between the methods ranged between 25%
and 50% for most of the investigated compounds. Total amounts of emitted
compounds were calculated as an alternative metric to single concentration
values, which allow the assessment of inhalation exposure. This study
demonstrates the utility of the two approaches in characterizing short-term
VOC emissions from consumer products. PTR-MS analysis offers rapid
quantitation of VOCs but has limitations in identifying individual
compounds, highlighting the need for complementary analyses by TD-GC-MS.
Despite inherent offline sampling, TD-GC-MS was shown to be well-suited
to monitoring short-term emissions.