Characteristics of Carbonyls in Beijing Urban Residences: Concentrations, Source Strengths and Influential Factors

The concentrations of Carbonyl in 40 urban residences in Beijing were measured in this study. The carbonyls in indoor air were collected by a DNPH-pre-treated cartridge, extracted by acetonitrile and analyzed by HPLC. A questionnaire was administrated to the residents in order to collect the information of building characteristics and human health conditions. The total concentrations of carbonyls were 136.0±77.5 μg/m3. Formaldehyde was the most abundant species with concentrations of 64.4±39.7 μg/m3, following by acetaldehyde, acetone, and hexaldehyde. The indoor source strengths of carbonyl species were estimated with One-compartment mass balance model. The indoor source strengths of formaldehyde acetaldehyde, acetone and hexaldehyde were estimated to be 11.6 mg/h, 4.41 mg/h, 1.17 mg/h, and 4.85 mg/h, respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to examine the impacts of possible factors on the carbonyl concentrations. We found that sofa material, smoking and residence location had significant impacts on formaldehyde concentration, smoking and kitchen structure on acetaldehyde, quantity of plants and kitchen structure on acetone, quantity of plants and pesticide on hexaldehyde, respectively.