SPME-Based Ca-History Method for Measuring SVOC Diffusion Coefficients in Clothing Material.

Clothes play an important role in dermal exposure to indoor semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs). The diffusion coefficient of SVOCs in clothing material (Dm) is essential for estimating SVOC sorption by clothing material and subsequent dermal exposure to SVOCs. However, few studies have reported the measured Dm for clothing materials. In this paper, we present the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) based Ca-history method. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first try to measure Dm with known relative standard deviation (RSD). A thin sealed chamber is formed by a circular ring and two pieces of flat SVOC source materials that are tightly covered by the targeted clothing materials. Dm is obtained by applying an SVOC mass transfer model in the chamber to the history of gas-phase SVOC concentrations (Ca) in the chamber measured by SPME. Dm's of three SVOCs, di-iso-butyl phthalate (DiBP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), and tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCPP), in a cotton T-shirt can be obtained within 16 days, with RSD less than 3%. This study should prove useful for measuring SVOC Dm in various sink materials. Further studies are expected to facilitate application of this method and investigate the effects of temperature, relative humidity, and clothing material on Dm.