Effect of yellow loess on odorous gas adsorption and ecotoxicity test using Daphnia Magna

To minimize damage caused by harmful substances released from artificial construction materials, there has been increasing interest in eco-friendly houses constructed with natural materials. Among natural materials, yellow loess is South Korea’s most representative eco-friendly construction material, with high purification performance for indoor use. However, there has been no objective assessment of yellow loess’s performance at purifying indoor air. In this study, internal pores were found in yellow loess that were of a lamellar crystal structure consisting of bonds of silica and alumina plates, and there was a high negative charge on the loess surface; these might have contributed to the excellent performance of yellow loess in adsorbing odorous gas. There was also an exposure test using Daphnia magna to determine the eco-friendliness of yellow loess compared with that of cement mortar. Results showed the survival of Daphnia magna was longer in the indoor environment of a test chamber with higher concentration of ammonia wherein yellow loess was placed. EC50 (median effective concentration, the concentration that caused death of 50% of bio-specimens) value of 19 ml of ammonia (0.1% solution), which was three times more than EC50 value of 6 ml of ammonia of the same area of cement mortar.