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Title: Infrared analysis of flame-generated PAH samples

Journal Article · · Combustion and Flame
; ;  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering

Recent experimental observations support the hypothesis that soot nucleation occurs through the reactive coagulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The PAH are rapidly formed in the region of a flame just ahead of the soot nucleation zone, which is most commonly defined as the onset of yellow luminosity in a premixed laminar flame. At the point of soot nucleation, the PAH concentration rapidly drops, indicating that PAH dynamics may be intimately linked to soot nucleation. Although one has some understanding of the dynamics of the PAH in sooting flames very little is known about their molecular structure. For example, do these PAH have alkyl groups on peripheral carbons, do they contain oxygen functionalities, etc.? One of the causes of the lack of structural information is that these materials do not lend themselves to convenient analysis due to their low solubility, thermal instability and difficulty in collection. In addition, standards are not generally available. In this paper the authors report on the use of infrared analysis to provide some insight into the structure of these large compounds.

OSTI ID:
215675
Journal Information:
Combustion and Flame, Vol. 105, Issue 1-2; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English