Characterization of nanoparticles of organic carbon (NOC) produced in rich premixed flames by differential mobility analysis

Differential mobility analysis (DMA) is used to measure on-line the size distributions of inception particles in atmospheric pressure premixed ethylene air flames ranging from C/O = 0.61 to 0.69, just at the onset of soot formation. DMA is also used, in combination with electrospray, to measure the size distributions of suspended flame products captured in water samples. The DMA systems used for this work employ detectors sensitive to the full range of molecular clusters/nanoparticles in gas-to-particle conversion processes (as small as about 1 nm) and they have much larger sheath gas flow rates than is typically used to reduce losses and peak broadening by diffusion. The measured size distributions show that the first particles observed in flames have a size of 2 nm, consistent with previous in situ measurements by light scattering and extinction (LSE) and the off-line measurements of material captured in water samples from the same flames. For richer flames, the quantity of the 2 nm particles measured increases, and the width of its size distribution shifts asymmetrically toward larger sizes. A numerical coagulation model assuming size-dependent coagulation efficiency predicts well the experimentally measured size distributions in the flames examined. Similarly, the slightly larger size distributions measured by atomic force microscopy of inception particles deposited on surfaces can also be attributed to the size-dependent coagulation/adhesion efficiency. The results imply that the smaller nanoparticles formed in combustion processes have a longer lifetime than those larger than 6–7 nm and may play an important role in the formation of fine organic carbon particulate in the atmosphere.