Influence of ethanol blending ratios on in-flame soot particle structures in an optical spark-ignition direct-injection engine

This study shows how ethanol addition impacts in-flame and exhaust soot in spark-ignition direct injection (SIDI) engines through direct and simultaneous sampling of particles from the flames and exhaust stream. The thermophoresis-based soot sampling and transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging was performed for various ethanol blending ratios ranging from 0 to 60%. A quantitative analysis is performed in the images obtained from a standard TEM by yielding the in-flame and exhaust soot number counts, projection area, as well as morphological parameters such as soot primary particle diameter, aggregate radius of gyration, and fractal dimension. In addition, the internal structures and reactivity status of in-flame and exhaust soot particles are unveiled using a high-resolution TEM with carbon fringe length, tortuosity and fringe-to-fringe separation extracted from processed carbon layer fringe images. The results show that both the number counts and projection areas of exhaust soot are much lower than those of the in-flame soot at any fixed ethanol blending ratios. The exhaust soot is smaller in size for both the primary particles and aggregates with more compact aggregate structures, longer and straighter fringe, and lower fringe separation, all indicating significant soot oxidation occurred inside the cylinder before the particles exit through the exhaust. With increasing ethanol blending ratio, almost linear reduction in number counts and projection area is found for both the in-flame and exhaust soot particles, while both soot aggregates and primary particles become smaller with more stretched aggregate structures and shorter, more curved, and narrower gap fringe structures, indicating soot particles with higher reactivity. The significantly lower soot emissions achieved with higher ethanol blending ratio is found to be due primarily to the suppression of soot formation within the flame as evidenced by higher reduction rate of number counts, projection area, and primary particle and aggregate sizes for the in-flame soot than that of the exhaust soot.