Abstract
Just as the chemistry creates urban smog and aerosols that influence climate change, chemistry in building air can alter the indoor environment for better or worse. This review focuses on chemical pathways initiated by oxidants that infiltrate from outdoor air and other indoor-sourced reactants and surfaces that make these environments unique chemical reactors. Ozone reacts with fragrance molecules, tobacco smoke residues, and even human skin oils to generate a host of oxidized organic compounds, secondary organic aerosols, and irritants. Nitrous acid is formed on indoor surfaces and is subsequently cleaved by even the relatively dim light indoor. This raises the indoor concentration of the highly reactive hydroxyl radical. Nitrous acid can also react with tobacco smoke residue to form carcinogenic nitrosamines. Some seek to harness this chemistry to help reduce indoor concentrations of unwanted indoor pollutants using novel surface coatings, but controlling that chemistry is challenging.
Recommended Citation
G. Morrison, "Recent Advances in Indoor Chemistry," Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 33 - 40, Springer, Jun 2015.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40518-015-0026-9
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Building surfaces; Chemistry; Indoor air quality; Ozone; Secondary organic aerosols; Terpenes
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2196-3010
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2024 Springer, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jun 2015
