Morphological characterization of carbonaceous aggregates in soot and free fall aerosol samples

The morphological characteristics of BC aggregates present in the soot and carbonaceous aerosol (CA) samples were investigated. The process of soot formation under laboratory conditions took into account the commonly used practice of burning fuel in the households in India. The fractal morphology was determined by using box counting algorithm and maximum projected area of the aggregates by using their digital electron microscopic images. Former provided the estimates of perimeter fractal dimension (PDf) of each aggregate, and later estimated the average density fractal dimension (DDf) of aggregate groups. Numbers of particles constituting the aggregates, using projected area approach, were significantly higher than the estimates based on pixel counting. The measured average diameter of the primary particles in aggregates, ranged between 24 and 57 nm. The fractal dimensions, PDf, for the laboratory-generated soot aggregates varied from 1.36 to 1.88. The PDf for aggregates derived from diesel-vehicles and biomass burning showed significant variation: biomass, 1.27; diesel vehicle, 1.82 and 1.7. The size and the dimensions estimated for the free fall CA samples showed large deviation. The ratio L/Rg (length/radius of gyration) for soot aggregates (gasoline, kerosene, diesel, mustard oil and hexane) ranged from 3.5 to 4.8. Surface morphology of these aggregates, using scanning electron microscope (SEM), showed the presence of spherical “charred cenosphere” like particles in gasoline and free fall aerosol aggregates. FTIR investigations revealed the presence of a large number of organic groups (OC) associated with carbonaceous aggregates present in soot and free fall aerosol samples.