Simultaneous Monitoring of Particle-Bound PAHs Inside a Low-Energy School Building and Outdoors over Two Weeks in France
Résumé
The emergence of new super-insulated buildings to reduce energy consumption can lead
to a degradation of the indoor air quality. While some studies were carried out to assess the air
quality in these super-insulated buildings, they were usually focused on the measurement of gas
phase pollutants such as carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds. This work reports the first
measurements of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) associated with particles as a function
of time and particle size in a low-energy building. The airborne particles were collected indoors
and outdoors over three to four days of sampling using two three-stage cascade impactors allowing
to sample simultaneously particles with aerodynamic diameter Dae > 10 µm, 2.5 µm < Dae < 10 µm,
1 µm< Dae < 2.5 µm, and Dae < 1 µm. The 16 US-EPA priority PAHswere then extracted and quantified
by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to fluorescence detection. The resulting
total particle concentrations were low, in the ranges 3.73 to 9.66 and 0.60 to 8.83 µg m-3 for indoors
and outdoors, respectively. Thirteen PAHs were always detected in all the samples. The total PAH
concentrations varied between 290 and 415 pg m-3 depending on the particle size, the environment
(indoors or outdoors) and the sampling period considered. More interestingly, the temporal variations
of individual PAHs highlighted that high molecular weight PAHs were mainly associated to the finest
particles and some of them exhibited similar temporal behaviors, suggesting a common emission source.
The indoor-to-outdoor concentration ratios of individual PAH were usually found close to or less than 1,
except during the event combining rainy conditions and limited indoor ventilation rate.
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