Evaluation of Air Quality in University Classrooms and Shared Spaces via Novel Spatiotemporal Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds
Fall 2022
August 31st, 2022 – The Sniffer Lab is excited to launch a measurement campaign to evaluate air quality in classrooms and shared spaces on the UT Austin campus! This project is funded by the Green Fund (formerly Green Fee), a competitive grant program managed by the UT Office of Sustainability to support sustainability-related projects and initiatives proposed by university affiliates.
In this measurement campaign, we will utilize the Vocus Proton-Transfer-Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass-Spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) to quantify concentrations and source emission rates of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in various university spaces, including classrooms, laboratories, corridors, and some outdoor environments. An accompanying suite of smaller instruments will measure other compounds such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, ozone, and relevant factors like temperature and relative humidity.
Classrooms comprise an interesting indoor environment due to their dense and highly cyclical occupancy pattern, as well as the sheer number of VOC sources present in them, including building materials, furniture, and most importantly, human sources such as personal care products, human metabolites, and ozone-skin reaction products. This campaign includes both stationary measurements within classrooms and mobile measurements in surrounding spaces.
We have also recruited many undergraduate students to assist in this measurement campaign. These students are working diligently with lab members to ensure that our instruments are in good condition, and to document any notable factors that might impact these measurements (large crowds due to UT game days, power outages, adverse weather, etc.) A massive THANK YOU to the following undergraduate students for their help in this project: Ishika Chandhok, Jeffrey (Jay) Garcia, Leanne Fulo, Lan Nguyen, Nick Nola, and Alex Wu.
September 2nd, 2022 – After three days of intensive mobile measurements in ECJ and EER, we moved the Vocus to a lecture hall in the Jackson School of Geoscience building (JGB), using an adjoining closet as the instrument control room. We connected the Vocus inlet to a supply diffuser and a return diffuser near the front of the lecture hall with Teflon tubing, via a multiport valve system that allow for quick switching between the two diffusers.
December 14th, 2022 – Sniffer Lab member Sam Lin presented some findings from this measurement campaign at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in Chicago, IL.
