Breakthrough times for vapors of organic solvents with low boiling points in steady-state and pulsating flows on respirator cartridges.

The breakthrough times of five organic solvents at various vapor concentrations were measured in steady-state and pulsating flows on commercially available respirator cartridges. The relationship between the logarithmic vapor concentration and the logarithmic breakthrough time of each organic solvent showed an inverse correlation in both of the flow patterns. The organic solvents with lower boiling points exhibited the shorter breakthrough times in both of the flow patterns. The ratios of the breakthrough times in the pulsating flow to those in the steady-state flow were lower than 0.9 when the vapor concentrations were higher than 600 ppm for ethyl acetate, methyl acetate, acetone and dichloromethane. From the present study, the breakthrough in the pulsating flow tends to occur earlier than in the steady-state flow when using a highly concentrated vapor of an organic solvent with a low boiling point.