Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2105067118
As we know, perhaps these days more than ever before, people spend a significant fraction of their lives indoors. As is perhaps less widely well-known, human health can be strongly affected by the chemical content of indoor air cleanliness along with the chemical content of indoor air.
Image Credit: TOFWERK
However, it must be noted that indoor air chemistry is complex: substances including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be emitted from a diverse range of materials, and chemical reactions which involve these VOCs are correspondingly diverse.
Researchers embarking on a new project for the University of Toronto, explored VOC emissions from liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, and tracked the impact they have on indoor air quality.
The researchers, with the help of a Vocus 2R CI-TOF with H3O+ chemical ionization, discovered more than 30 molecules in air that originated from LCD screens. These VOCs included alkenes and amides, carboxylic acids, cyclic alkenes, and multi-ring cycloalkanes related to liquid crystal monomers. It was found that the emission of these VOCs from LCDs was strongly humidity-dependent.
The non-targeted analysis capability of the Vocus instrument and Tofware analysis software, as well as the high time-resolution, that allowed researchers to pinpoint LCD screens as the source of these chemicals and to measure their emission rates, were both especially important for this study. A particularly clear explanation of how chemical structures can be determined was provided by this paper, thanks to the elemental formulas provided by the Vocus instrument.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by TOFWERK.
For more information on this source, please visit TOFWERK.