International. A group of German researchers were able to identify the substances that generate the offensive odors in acrylic adhesives.
Most products in our environment contain adhesives, including acrylic adhesives that are used in many industrial sectors. Some of these adhesives contain solvents that produce strong odors, but even adhesives that are produced without solvents can emit intense or penetrating odors. In the latter case, the odor may come from monomers in the adhesive product, from manufacturing by-products or from degradation products.
In the study, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and IVV Packaging analyzed various acrylic, methacrylic and acrylic vinyl adhesives to identify representative odorous contaminants. The volatile fraction of the products was extracted and isolated by solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE), then analyzed using high-performance gas chromatography (HRGC-O) olfactometry, HRGC mass spectrometry (HRGC-MS/O) and two two-dimensional HRGC-MS/O. An aroma extract dilution analysis was performed to determine the most prominent odors.
Using this targeted odorizing-analytical approach, the scientists identified 27 odorous substances representing various classes of molecules, including leather-like phenols, stable-like odors or medicinal odors, sticky eliciting acrylates, moldy and fruity impressions, and different esters with honey-like or effervescent odors. These results show that the smell of acrylic adhesives is the result of a mixture of different odors that generally cannot be traced back to the main constituents of the product, but is more likely to originate from impurities and trace by-products and other contaminants.
Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
