Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada.
Environ Sci Technol. 2024 Mar 5;58(9):4257-4267. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c08751. Epub 2024 Feb 21.
Human chemical exposure often occurs indoors, where large variability in contaminant concentrations and indoor chemical dynamics make assessments of these exposures challenging. A major source of uncertainty lies in the rates of chemical transformations which, due to high surface-to-volume ratios and rapid air change rates relative to rates of gas-phase reactions indoors, are largely gas-surface multiphase processes. It remains unclear how important such chemistry is in controlling indoor chemical lifetimes and, therefore, human exposure to both parent compounds and transformation products. We present a multimedia steady-state fugacity-based model to assess the importance of multiphase chemistry relative to cleaning and mass transfer losses, examine how the physicochemical properties of compounds and features of the indoor environment affect these processes, and investigate uncertainties pertaining to indoor multiphase chemistry and chemical lifetimes. We find that multiphase reactions can play an important role in chemical fate indoors for reactive compounds with low volatility, i.e., octanol-air equilibrium partitioning ratios () above 10, with the impact of this chemistry dependent on chemical identity, oxidant type and concentration, and other parameters. This work highlights the need for further research into indoor chemical dynamics and multiphase chemistry to constrain human exposure to chemicals in the built environment.
人类的化学物质暴露通常发生在室内,由于污染物浓度和室内化学动力学的高度变异性,评估这些暴露情况具有挑战性。一个主要的不确定性来源在于化学转化的速率,由于室内的表面积与体积比高,空气交换率相对气相反应速率快,因此化学转化主要是气-固多相过程。目前还不清楚这种化学物质在控制室内化学物质寿命以及因此控制人类接触母体化合物和转化产物方面有多么重要。我们提出了一种基于多介质稳态逸度的模型来评估多相化学与清洁和质量传递损失的相对重要性,考察化合物的物理化学性质和室内环境的特征如何影响这些过程,并研究与室内多相化学和化学物质寿命有关的不确定性。我们发现,对于挥发性低的反应性化合物,即辛醇-空气平衡分配系数()大于 10 的化合物,多相反应在室内化学命运中可能起着重要作用,这种化学作用取决于化学物质的特性、氧化剂类型和浓度以及其他参数。这项工作强调需要进一步研究室内化学动力学和多相化学,以限制人类在建筑环境中接触化学物质。