Morphology of aerosol particles formed in CO pyrolysis of hydrocarbons and metalorganics

Aerosol particles produced by combustion or thermal decomposition, referred to as smokes, are frequently composed of numerous individual primary particles forming an aggregate. Their characterization is usually restricted mainly by measuring a size distribution expressed in terms of the equivalent diameters. As a rule, the equivalent diameter measured by a particular tool reects some physical properties like diffusion coefficient, mobility in the electric field, sedimentation velocity, inertia deposition efficiency, etc. In some cases, the properties of such particles differ tremendously from those of rigid and isometric aerosol particles. To be able to predict particle mobility, the coagulation rate constant, and optical properties one should study the mechanism of particle morphology evolution. In this paper, the structure of aerosol particles formed by pyrolysis of hydrocarbons + metalorganics was investigated. The main results are obtained for the C3H8 + Fe(CO)5 system. The mechanism of particle formation which determines the particle morphology was shown to be completely different in the cases of Ar + C3H8, Ar+Fe(CO)5, and Ar+C3H8 + Fe(CO)5 pyrolysis