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Abstract
Combustion products from fuel-rich, premixed flames generated by the burning of aliphatic and aromatic fuels were characterized by GC/MS and HPLC with diode-array detection (HPLC/DAD). Fullerenes were efficiently produced in benzene (aromatic) flames, but not in ethylene (aliphatic) flames. The PAH product suites from both types of flames appeared qualitatively similar, whether or not the flames were fullerenes-forming. However, oxygen-containing PAH were notably more abundant in fullerenes-forming benzene flames. Ethylene flame products were found to be characterized by an abundance of peripherally-fused, relative to internally-fused, cyclopenta-PAH, while the opposite was found for the benzene flames. Interestingly, corannulene, a fullerene subunit, is a product of both aliphatic and aromatic flames. These differences in the product suites may help to elucidate the mechanism of fullerenes formation in the aromatic flames.