Factors that may govern diesel particulate matter (DPM) oxidation at low temperatures (~200°C) were studied using reactivity and TP-ToFSIMS analysis. Best-case scenarios that give maximum gasification rates were determined for DPM impregnated with KOH and non-catalyzed DPM using temperature programmed oxidation and isothermal experiments. Conditions of intimate catalyst-carbon contact (K/C molar ratio=1/50) and high NO2 concentrations (1%) to improve the reactivity of the carbon reactive sites were unable to meet the steady state gasification rate needed for particulate filter regeneration for a modern diesel engine at 200°C. Oxygen-free thermal annealing (>500°C) caused reactivity losses of a maximum of 40% that correspond to changes to surface morphology and/or concentration of oxygen-containing functional groups.
TP-ToFSIMS identified surface functional group changes with temperature on non-dosed and NOX pre-dosed (1.5%NO, 1%NO2, 4.5%O2, balance helium) diesel soot and sucrose char. Detailed analysis of the NOX dosed sucrose char spectra using both inspection and principal component analysis techniques revealed that the 1200 ion fragments created could be reduced to five sets of ions that are chemically and kinetically distinct. These sets presumably represent surface functional groups on the carbon. For example, Set IV may represent carboxylic acid, lactone, or carboxylic anhydride functional groups. Based on these results a mechanism for the surface reaction of NO2 with carbon under vacuum conditions was postulated. At temperatures less than 200°C the ion fragments contain primarily carbon-NO2 type ions. As temperature increases between 200 and 400°C the ion fragments are primarily carbon-NO and carbon-N type fragments. At higher temperatures (>500°C) the surface is enriched with nitrogen containing functional groups. A surface reaction mechanism is proposed where NO2 is bonded to an armchair site and with increasing temperatures and molecular rearrangements the N is incorporated into the carbon ring. The initial surface composition of NOx containing functional groups changes within the area of relevance of low temperature soot regeneration (i.e. between 25° and 200°C). Further studies are needed to understand the effect of N-incorporation on carbon reactivity. No rate processes either in reactor studies or based on surface functional groups met the rate criteria for low temperature DPM oxidation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/17246 |
| Date | 26 February 2009 |
| Creators | Williams, Shazam |
| Contributors | Mims, Charles A. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 5643138 bytes, application/pdf |
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