Aircraft and MiniCAST soot at the nanoscale

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) have been used to compare the nanoscale characteristics of aircraft soot collected at the exhaust of a recent PowerJet SaM146 jet engine, with those of soot generated by a MiniCAST burner. Analyses show that some MiniCAST operating conditions enable generating soot particles of morphology, internal nano-structure and chemical structure close to those of aircraft soot. However, MiniCAST soot have gyration diameters systematically larger compared to aircraft soot. Provided that this imperfect agreement is not critical for the studied properties, MiniCAST soot might be used as a relevant analogue of aircraft soot for studying some of their physical or chemical properties, offering a convenient and affordable way to conduct laboratory studies on the environmental impacts of aviation emitted particles. (C) 2019 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.