Studies on textile stabilization of environmental malodors for sensory and electronic nose analyses

The purpose of the research was to understand the role that cloth swatch testing and electronic nose analyses could play in environmental testing for agricultural malodors. Environmental malodors are a problem whenever large-scale production and residential areas lie near each other. Current sampling methods for these malodors can be cumbersome and expensive. This thesis describes a series of five studies related to stabilization of environmental malodors on cloth swatches and sensory and electronic nose measurement with an Alpha MOS Fox 3000 system, of the presence and intensity of the odors adsorbed onto fabrics.; In the first study, a 1-butanol reference scale, commonly used in environmental testing for magnitude matching, was evaluated using two sensory ratio scaling methods, magnitude estimation and the labelled magnitude scale. Calculated values of the exponent (n) of Stevens' Law, 0.59 for magnitude estimation and 0.46 for the labelled magnitude scale, were found to be statistically different at p < 0.001, although well within the range of values reported in the literature.; In the second study, 13 fabrics (cotton flannel, cotton broadcloth, cotton T-shirt knit, cotton terry cloth, cotton twill, worsted wool flannel, wool challis, silk habutae, linen suiting, spun viscose challis (rayon), Dacron type 54, spun polypropylene, activated carbon cloth) were evaluated for their ability to adsorb malodors when exposed to swine odor simulant under controlled conditions. Two sensory scales (difference-from control for linear data and labelled magnitude scale for ratio data) and electronic nose analysis were used to compare fabrics both within and between sample sets. All fabrics adsorbed odor to some degree and both sensory panels and the electronic nose were able to detect the changes.; In the third study, the available GC/MS was unsuccessful in providing the headspace composition of the sensory and electronic nose samples of the swine odor simulant-exposed fabrics. Data manipulation the electronic nose sensor signals allowed removal of the cloth signal from the exposed cloth signal. When compared to the signals for the swine odor simulant components, the spun polypropylene mapped most closely with the largest group of components.; In the fourth study, field testing involved selected cloth swatches being exposed to malodors simultaneously with the collection of sensory data during an odor dispersion study. When electronic nose analysis was compared to sensory results for actual field conditions, activated carbon cloth was found to be the most appropriate of the cloth sources tested.; In the final study, the effect of surface chemistry on the adsorption of odors was evaluated through changing a hydrophilic fabric (cotton flannel) and a hydrophobic fabric (spun polypropylene) through He/O2 and He/C3F6 exposure in a radio frequency glow discharge plasma polymerization unit. Surface changes in fabrics were validated through contact angle measurements and ESCA analysis. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...