Effect of lubricant sulfur on the morphology and elemental composition of diesel exhaust particles

This work investigates the effects of lubricant sulfur contents on the morphology,nanostructure,size distribution and elemental composition of diesel exhaust particle on a light-duty diesel engine. Three kinds of lubricant（LS-oil,MS-oil and HS-oil,all of which have different sulfur contents：0.182%,0.583% and 1.06%,respectively）were used in this study. The morphologies and nanostructures of exhaust particles were analyzed using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy（TEM）. Size distributions of primary particles were determined through advanced image-processing software. Elemental compositions of exhaust particles were obtained through X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy（EDS）. Results show that as lubricant sulfur contents increase,the macroscopic structure of diesel exhaust particles turn from chain-like to a more complex agglomerate. The inner cores of the core-shell structure belonging to these primary particles change little; the shell thickness decreases,and the spacing of carbon layer gradually descends,and amorphous materials that attached onto outer carbon layer of primary particles increase. Size distributions of primary particles present a unimodal and normal distribution,and higher sulfur contents lead to larger size primary particles. The sulfur content in lubricants directly affects the chemical composition in the particles. The content of C（carbon）decreases as sulfur increases in the lubricants,while the contents of O（oxygen）,S（sulfur）and trace elements（including S,Si（silicon）,Fe（ferrum）,P（phosphorus）,Ca（calcium）,Zn（zinc）,Mg（magnesium）,Cl（chlorine）and Ni（nickel））all increase in particles.

Experimental investigation into the oxidation reactivity,morphology and graphitization of soot particles from diesel/n-octanol mixtures

Aiming to investigate the impacts of n-octanol addition on the oxidation reactivity,morphology and graphitization of diesel exhaust particles,soot samples were collected from a four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine fueled with D100(neat diesel fuel),DO15(85%diesel and 15%n-octanol,V/V)and DO30(70%diesel and 30%n-octanol,V/V).All tests were conducted at two engine speeds of 1370 and 2150 r/min under a fixed torque of 125 N·m.The soot properties were characterized by thermogravimetric analyzer(TGA),transmission electron microscopy(TEM)and Raman spectroscopy(RS).The higher volatile organic fraction content,lower soot oxidation temperatures and lower activation energy from TGA results indicated that both the increasing n-octanol concentration and engine speed enhanced the soot oxidation reactivity.Additionally,quantitative analysis of TEM images showed that the soot derived from DO30 had the smallest primary particle diameters and fractal dimension,followed by those of soot produced by DO15 and D100.The RS results demonstrated that the n-octanol addition and higher engine speed led to a larger D1-FWHM(D1-full width at half maximum),A_(D1)/A_(T)(area ratio of D1 band and the total spectral)and A_(D3)/A_(T)(area ratio of D3 band and the total spectral)as well as a smaller L_(a)(crystallite width),revealing a lower degree of graphitization.Furthermore,the correlations between characterization parameters of soot properties and reactivity were nonlinear.