CHEMICAL AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF SOOT FROM DIVERSE SOURCES

The characterization of soot generated in inverse diffusion flames (IDF) is meaningful for the study of soot formation, with particular regard to soot inception. Indeed, it has been found that IDF soot keeps on the features of incipient (young) soot particles as those formed in combustion systems as premixed and diffusion flames. This work regards a deeper characterization of carbon particulate collected from the exhaust of an ethylene IDF in comparison to young and mature soot sampled inside an ethylene premixed flame (PMXF). Elemental analysis, Raman and UV-Visible spectroscopy were carried out to evaluate soot aromaticity features. The comparison between soot from these two different flame configurations confirmed that IDF is a suitable source of young soot to be massively analyzed. The features of mature soot derived from laboratory scale flames resulted to be similar to those of soot emitted in practical combustion processes as diesel engines and coal pyrolysis.