From air to clothing: characterizing the accumulation of semi-volatile organic compounds to fabrics in indoor environments

Uptake kinetics of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) present indoors, namely phthalates and halogenated flame retardants (HFRs), were characterized for cellulose-based cotton and rayon fabrics. Cotton and rayon showed similar accumulation of gas- and particle-phase SVOCs, when normalized to planar surface area. Accumulation was 3–10 times greater by rayon than cotton, when normalized to Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area which suggests that cotton could have a longer linear uptake phase than rayon. Linear uptake rates of eight consistently detected HFRs over 56 days of 0.35–0.92 m3/day.dm2 planar surface area and mass transfer coefficients of 1.5–3.8 m/h were statistically similar for cotton and rayon and similar to those for uptake to passive air sampling media. These results suggest air-side controlled uptake and that, on average, 2 m2 of clothing typically worn by a person would sequester the equivalent of the chemical content in 100 m3 of air per day. Distribution coefficients between fabric and air (K′) ranged from 6.5 to 7.7 (log K′) and were within the range of partition coefficients measured for selected phthalates as reported in the literature. The distribution coefficients were similar for low molecular weight HFRs, and up to two orders of magnitude lower than the equilibrium partition coefficients estimated using the COSMO-RS model. Based on the COSMO-RS model, time to reach 95% of equilibrium for PBDEs between fabric and gas-phase compounds ranged from 0.1 to >10 years for low to high molecular weight HFRs.