Evaluation of VOC emission and sorption characteristics of low-VOC adhesive-bonded building materials

To reduce the risk of indoor air pollution caused by synthetic building materials, low-volitile organic compounds (VOC) building materials, including adhesives, are commonly used in building construction. Although adhesives do not directly contact indoor air, they affect VOC mass transfer at the surface of finishing materials by diffusion. This study investigates VOC emission and sorption behaviors of building materials with low-VOC adhesives. Small chamber emission and sorption experiments were designed in parallel to field measurements to examine the onsite VOC emission and sorption rates of adhesive-bonded building materials. It was found that the onsite emission rates from a wallpaper composite (polyvinyl chloride wallpaper + paper adhesive + gypsum board) were higher than the emission rates detected in the small-scale chamber, which demonstrates the possible sorption effect of the wallpaper composite. The results of the sorption chamber experiment confirm that the wallpaper is a sorptive building material and that the bonding of wallpaper to gypsum board increases the sorption and re-emission rates. These results indicate that even though low-VOC adhesive-bonded materials are used, additional indoor air quality control techniques should be applied to minimize re-emission by sorption processes over long periods of time.