VOC Emissions from Natural Upholstery Leathers

This article addresses the issue of VOC emissions from upholstery materials (natural leather) used for the manufacturing of upholstered furniture. The main intention of this paper is to compare VOC emissions released from different types of natural upholstery leathers. This research has assessed the impact of various factors (e.g. the organic origin of leather, the type of tanning, the type of upholstery leather and the leather finish etc.) on the amount of VOC emissions from natural leathers used for the production of upholstered furniture. 1 m(2) samples of natural leather were prepared for testing before being placed into a small test chamber (1 m(3) volume). VOC emission measurements were taken in a small test chamber with predefined conditions (an ambient temperature of 23 degrees C and 50% relative air humidity). With the use of sorbent Tenax TA were, the values of VOC emissions released by the test sample of different types of leather into desorption tubes was then recorded. VOC emissions were analysed in an Agilent GC 6890 N gas chromatograph using an Agilent 5973 Network mass spectrometer using cryofocusing, thermal desorption and a GC-MS data library (NIST 05). The analyses conducted provide qualitative and quantitative data regarding the concentration of selected VOC representatives measured in mu g.m(-3). The quantitative difference in all emitted organic compounds is shown by the measured values of the TVOC parameter.