Quantitative high-resolution transmission electron microscopy nanostructure analysis of soot oxidized in diesel spray flame periphery

Abstract

In order to better understand the in-flame diesel soot oxidation processes, soot particles at the oxidation-dominant periphery of diesel spray flame were sampled via newly developed suck type soot sampler employing a high-speed solenoid valve, and their morphology and nanostructure were observed and analyzed via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. A single-shot diesel flame for the soot sampling experiment was achieved in a constant-volume vessel under a diesel-like condition (9.5 kg/m3, 2.5 MPa, 1070 K, and 21%O2). Morphology of soot aggregates, inner-core/outer-shell structure of primary particles within the aggregates, and carbon crystallite nanostructures within the primary particles were compared between the soot aggregates sampled at the diesel flame core near the central axis and the oxidation-dominant flame periphery. The morphology observation and the inner-core/outer-shell structure characteristics obtained by newly employed concentricity analysis showed that the flame core soot exhibits graphitic primary particles with clear outlines and boundaries similarly observed for engine exhaust soot. Each primary particle contained a well-defined inner core surrounded by thick graphitic outer shell. On the contrary, the flame periphery soot exhibited smaller primary particles with unclear and lumpy outlines containing multiple obscured inner cores surrounded by thinner outer shell. The analysis of carbon crystallite nanostructures within the primary particles showed that the in-flame soot nanostructure shifts toward amorphous from the flame core to the periphery. On the contrary, the engine soot nanostructure in the literature shifts toward graphitic from the in-cylinder TDC to the exhaust, exhibiting the opposite trend with the in-flame soot. These results suggest that the engine exhaust soot has not experienced the rapid in-flame oxidation by OH radicals and is therefore considered not to be the remains of incomplete or partial oxidation, but the runaways escaped from the flame core to the exhaust without being attacked by the in-flame OH radicals.