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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Flame Experiments at the Advanced Light Source: New Insights into Soot Formation Processes
Published on: May 26, 2014
Light changes the atmospheric reactivity of soot
Maria Eugenia Monge1, Barbara D'Anna, Linda Mazri
1Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69626, France.
Abstract:
Soot particles produced by incomplete combustion processes are one of the major components of urban air pollution. Chemistry at their surfaces lead to the heterogeneous conversion of several key trace gases; for example NO(2) interacts with soot and is converted into HONO, which rapidly photodissociates to form OH in the troposphere. In the dark, soot surfaces are rapidly deactivated under atmospheric conditions, leading to the current understanding that soot chemistry affects tropospheric chemical composition only in a minor way. We demonstrate here that the conversion of NO(2) to HONO on soot particles is drastically enhanced in the presence of artificial solar radiation, and leads to persistent reactivity over long periods. Soot photochemistry may therefore be a key player in urban air pollution.
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