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2012
Journal Article
Titel
Comparable measurement of VOC-emissions from building materials followed by a standardized classification system
Abstract
The outgassing behavior of materials used in cleanroom environments gains increasing importance in different industries. Especially in newly planned or built semiconductor, photovoltaic and aerospace cleanroom settings, a maximum allowed level of volatile organic contamination (VOC) according to ISO 14644-8 is already often defined in the planning phase. A newly standardized method for the determination and classification of building materials regarding their VOC outgassing properties is described in this article. Chamber measurements of different screened materials are performed using a micro-chamber and collection of the emitted VOC on Tenax sorbent tubes followed by thermo desorption gas-chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy analysis (TD-GC/MS). The calculated surface specific emission rate (SER) is then converted into a newly introduced easy comparable material classification number AMCm (or) = x. The described method is published in the new guideline draft VDI 2083 part 17 (2011). A public available database for material selection and comparison gives all engineers involved in cleanroom planning and operation a useful tool to estimate the expected ISO-AMC level of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) based on the selection of included materials.