Active clay, bentonite and zeolite were used as porous materials for humidity controlling ceramic boards. The specific area and the pore volume of active clay were higher than bentonite and zeolite. The flexible strength of the gypsum board decreased with an increasing amount of porous material, and the flexible strength was lowest when active clay with a higher specific surface area than others porous materials was added. The specific surface area and total pore volume of ceramic boards containing porous material were highest at 102.25 m2/g, 0.142 cm3/g, respectively, when the active clay was added. In addition, as the amount of added porous materials increased, the specific surface area and total pore volume of the ceramic board increased, but the average pore diameter decreased. The addition of s porous materials with a high specific area and a large pore volume improved the moisture absorptive and desorptive performance of the ceramic board. Therefore, in this experiment, the moisture absorptive and desorptive properties were the best when active clay was added. Furthermore, as the amount of added porous materials increased, the moisture absorptive and desorptive properties improved. When 70 mass% of active clay was added to α-type gypsum, the hygroscopicity was the highest, about 300 g/m2, in this experiment.

With increasing public awareness regarding radon, this study has been conducted with the aim of providing more accurate information about radon to the public. We investigated the radon emissions from gypsum boards, which are known to emit relatively higher levels of radon among the building materials available on the market. Radon emissions were measured over three weeks using the closed chamber method with nuclear track detectors. For ceiling materials, the arithmetic mean of the radon emissions was 43.8 ± 42.2 Bq/m3 (geometric mean: 28.9 ± 5.6), 156.2 ± 150.5 mBq/m2/h per unit area (geometric mean, 103.1 ± 2.7) and 21.1 ± 19.9 mBq/kg/h per unit mass (geometric mean: 14.4 ± 2.6). Regarding the wall materials, the arithmetic mean of radon emissions was 24.1 ± 24.0 Bq/m3 (geometric mean: 15.6 ± 2.6), 133.3 ± 143.4 mBq/m2/h per unit area (geometric mean, 76.8 ± 3.0) and 13.0 ± 10.4 mBq/kg/h per unit mass (geometric mean, 9.5 ± 2.3). According to the results of this study, higher radon concentrations and emissions were detected in the ceiling materials than in the wall materials, but these values were lower than those previously measured in building materials.

Developing proper reduction strategies of indoor radon which have been an important issue in Korea requires proper information on source characteristics a phosphate gypsum board which is a common building material used for inter-wall thermal protection in Korea could be a major source of indoor radon level. This study evaluated the correlation between indoor radon concentration and the attribution of gypsum board content in building materials. In this study we valuated indoor/outdoor radon from 58 facilities selected based on the information availability of gypsum content in the building material across 8 different cities in Korea. Our results showed that indoor radon concentrations were 2 to 3 times higher than outdoor but those results were not significantly attributed from gypsum contents in the building material. Indeed, phosphate content in gypsum board did not significantly play a role in indoor radon level variations. It is concluded that physical environmental condition such as temperature, relative humidity, radon exhalation rate out of each building materials, as well as pathway from external sources (e.g., soil) needs to be identified to develop indoor radon reduction strategies.

Recently, functional building materials have been developed and introduced to the market. Many building materials emit volatile organic compounds(VOCs) which have the potential to affect health and comfort, and moisture problem has a major role also being established in indoor air quality (1AQ) problems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of reduction of HCHO using the gupsum board and water vapour adsorption/desorption property for ceiling board for mock-up test room and test house. The mock-up test is conducted according environmental standard method for indoor air quality of the ministry of environment. The results of this study are as follows, the reduction of HCHO gypsum boards are showed an effect to reduce the formaldehyde(HCHO) concentration of mock-up test room and test house. The indoor humidity is also showed to be lower than the general ceiling materials, since there is increased in the absorbed indoor humidity by using a humidifier with moisture adsorption/desorption ceiling materials. In natural conditions, moisture adsorption/desorption ceiling materials is showed a higher humidity than general ceiling materials constructed in the mock-up test room. However It changes of moisture adsorption/desorption is not appeared in test house. Therefore, in case of decreasing and increasing in humidity, these materials can be offset by reduction of HCHO using the gypsum board.