Hannah Przelomski

32 People spend around 90% of their time indoors. Because of this, the chemistry that occurs in indoor environments can have a large impact on human health. Indoor air contains a mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and organic aerosol particles. The concentrations and identities of these chemicals will play large role in the healthiness of indoor spaces. The aerosol particles and the semi-volatile portion of VOCs can be transported in the air around the room and can deposit/partition onto different indoor surfaces. Due to the high surface area to volume ratio indoors, surfaces can have a big impact on indoor air. Current methods for collecting surface samples typically involve wiping the surface with a piece of clean disposable cloth. This method presents some difficulties including a lack of consistency between wipes and possible contamination. Here, we have designed and built an extractor to investigate organic material on indoor surfaces using direct solvent extraction. The surface ex-tractor has been used to sample multiple different indoor surfaces including time series analysis of a kitchen. These samples are characterized using two types of mass spectrometry: soft ionization and aerosol mass spectrometry. We find good extraction efficiencies ~40-50% and clean backgrounds. The soft ionization method demonstrates differences in the chemical composition by surface location/type in the kitchen indicating local emission/deposition events. The aerosol mass spectrometer provides insights into aging with more oxidized/aged material observed further from a direct source.

Hannah Przelomski is a second-year M.S. candidate in the Chemistry Department at William & Mary. Her area of research focuses on material that is found on indoor surfaces and how to collect and analyze this material. Currently, she is working on an extractor that will allow sampling of this material.