Resonance-stabilized hydrocarbon-radical chain reactions may explain soot inception and growth

A radical route to soot
The chemical origin of soot is a persistent puzzle. It is clear that small hydrocarbon fragments formed in flames must aggregate into larger particles, but the initial driving force for aggregation remains a mystery. Johansson et al. combined theory and mass spectrometry to suggest a solution based on resonance-stabilized radicals (see the Perspective by Thomson and Mitra). Aromatics such as cyclopentadiene have a characteristically weak C–H bond because their cleavage produces radicals with extended spans of π-electron conjugation. Clusters thus build up through successive coupling reactions that extend conjugation in stabilized radicals of larger and larger size.
Science, this issue p. 997; see also p. 978
Mystery surrounds the transition from gas-phase hydrocarbon precursors to terrestrial soot and interstellar dust, which are carbonaceous particles formed under similar conditions. Although polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known precursors to high-temperature carbonaceous-particle formation, the molecular pathways that initiate particle formation are unknown. We present experimental and theoretical evidence for rapid molecular clustering–reaction pathways involving radicals with extended conjugation. These radicals react with other hydrocarbon species to form covalently bound complexes that promote further growth and clustering by regenerating resonance-stabilized radicals through low-barrier hydrogen-abstraction and hydrogen-ejection reactions. Such radical–chain reaction pathways may lead to covalently bound clusters of PAHs and other hydrocarbons that would otherwise be too small to condense at high temperatures, thus providing the key mechanistic steps for rapid particle formation and surface growth by hydrocarbon chemisorption.
Radicals such as cyclopentadienyl stabilized by π-electron conjugation can help assemble soot precursors from flames.
Radicals such as cyclopentadienyl stabilized by π-electron conjugation can help assemble soot precursors from flames.