Which fraction of stone wool fibre surface remains uncoated by binder? A detailed analysis by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

ABSTRACT: Biodurability of man-made vitreous fibres (MMVF) is often measured on naked fibres, i.e. fibres devoid of the phenol-urea-formaldehyde (PUF) binder that is sprayed and baked on the commercial product to reduce dustiness and to provide mechanical strength to fibre mats. This simplification of the hazard assessment relies on the assumption that the binder would not actually coat the entire fibre surface, but would occur only at the touching points where two fibres are glued together. We challenged this assumption by using surface analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). We analysed commercial stone wool MMVF sourced from Denmark, United Kingdom and Germany. XPS as well as ToF-SIMS-mapping combined with gas-cluste

SUBMITTER: Hirth S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9044424 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature