Probing soot particles using laser-based techniques

An experimental study on mechanisms of soot inception and nucleation in diffusion flames is presented. Microscopic amounts of soot samples are collected from benzene, acetylene, and methane diffusion flames. The molecular composition of these samples are analyzed using a laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Preliminary results clearly indicate that soot samples generated by different fuels have different chemical structures. Surprisingly, methane soot contained the largest carbon clusters and acetylene soot generated the smallest carbon clusters.