The common thread between fuel identity, soot structure and its oxidation reactivity

With the development of powerful diagnostics for deriving nanostructural parameters of carbons by both spectroscopic tools and imaging at nanometric level, it has been shown that soot nanostructure depends on its formation chemistry, i.e. on the hydrocarbon environment in which it is formed. Beside to combustion parameters as C/O feed ratio and temperature, the hydrocarbon environment in combustion processeis determined by the fuel molecule identity, As soot structure also affects soot oxidation reactivity in this work the effect of fuel on soot nanostructure and then on soot reactivity has been studied in flames of prototypical hydrocarbon fuels as methane, ethylene and benzene.