Adsorption, desorption and chemisorption are known to impact the dispersal of volatile organic and chemically reactive compounds in buildings. These same three processes may be used to advantage to control the levels of these compounds indoors using building sorption filtration devices.

The adsorption of vapours of different volatility and polarity on three materials widely used indoors (carpet, gypsum board, wall coating) has been investigated in small test chambers, in order to study methodological aspects and to estimate the importance of the phenomenon for human exposure assessments. The output of the models used, with rate constants describing two different sinks, is discussed.