What are VOCs, VOCs and TVOC? What is the relationship between them? In daily life, we often see or hear about the propaganda of VOC, VOCs and TVOC prevention and monitoring, so what are these three? What are the hazards? What are VOCs? VOCs is the abbreviation of Volatile Organic Compounds, which refers to organic compounds with a saturated vapor pressure greater than 70.91Pa at room temperature and a boiling point less than 260℃ at normal pressure. From the perspective of environmental monitoring, it refers to the general term for non-methane total hydrocarbons detected by hydrogen flame ionization detector, mainly including alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, olefins, halogenated hydrocarbons, esters, aldehydes, ketones and other organic compounds.

What is the relationship between VOC and VOCs?

The key point here is that VOC and VOCs are actually the same type of substance, namely the abbreviation of Volatile Organic Compounds. Since Volatile Organic Compounds generally have more than one component, VOCs is more accurate. Furthermore, in daily communication, people habitually omit the s, which causes some friends to confuse VOC and VOCs.

What is TVOC?

TVOC is the abbreviation of Total Volatile Organic Compounds. The World Health Organization (WHO, 1989) defines TVOC as a general term for volatile organic compounds with a melting point below room temperature and a boiling point range of 50 to 260°C.

The three major sources of VOCs are coal, oil, and natural gas

The pollution sources of VOCs are divided into fixed sources and mobile sources. Coal, oil and natural gas or industries that use coal, oil and natural gas as fuel or raw materials and their related chemical industries are the three major sources of volatile organic compounds.

Toxic effects of volatile organic compounds

Most VOCs are toxic, and some are carcinogenic. For example, certain harmful substances in the atmosphere, such as benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, aromatic amines, resin compounds, aldehydes and nitrosamines, can cause cancer or produce true tumors;certain aromatic amines, aldehydes, halogenated alkanes and their derivatives, vinyl chloride, etc. can cause mutagenesis.