European overview of sustainable policies and approaches in COST C25 member countries

The implementation of the principles and methods towards a Sustainable Construction varies across different countries in Europe. In some countries, the sustainability of the construction sector has been effectively taken into consideration over the last years, while in other its implementation is at an initial stage. Many reasons may be pointed out for this situation. Different countries have different understandings of what is entailed in Sustainable Construction. Different cultural and educational backgrounds, along with different priorities in each country, are also contributing for the lack of a common European approach. General frameworks, aiming to cover every aspect of Sustainable Construction and to provide a consistent and integrated approach, such as Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction, gave a major advance in the search for a common approach for the construction sector. However, general agreed methodologies and tools to make this common approach operational are still missing.European Science Foundation - COST Action C2

Mobility of haloforms on ice surfaces

We have investigated the mobility of bromoform (CHBr3) and chloroform (CHCl3) on amorphous solid water and crystalline ice surfaces, by monitoring their adsorption and desorption behavior using temperature programmed desorption spectroscopy and reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy. Up to its desorption temperature, of 140 K, CHCl3 does not diffuse over the crystalline ice surface, whereas CHBr3 is found to be mobile at temperatures as low as 85 K. The results demonstrate distinct differences between the surface mobility of structurally similar haloform molecules on crystalline ice surfaces, which may have implications to the halocarbon chemistry occurring on atmospheric ice particles

Adsorption and photochemistry of multilayer bromoform on ice

The adsorption and photochemistry of bromoform multilayers on and in amorphous solid water (ASW) are studied using reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and time-of-flight (TOF) techniques. Regardless of the initial exposure, bromoform. resides on top of the ASW layer. No migration of bromoform molecules into the ASW film is observed for adsorption on top of the water layer. UV irradiation at a wavelength of 266 nm results in significant desorption of photochemical fragments, reaction of photochemical products on the surface and light-induced molecular reorganization of the remaining CHBr3, which is apparent from a comparison of pre- and post-irradiation TPD experiments. The ice-mediated C-C (C2H2Br2) and C-O (CHBrO) photoproducts desorb from both the ASW surface and the Pt surface. The photoproduct C2H2Br4 is formed exclusively from multilayers of CHBr3 and desorbs only from the Pt surface. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved