Abstract
Soot particles, which are emitted from combustion of carbonaceous materials, have complicated shapes and chemical and physical properties, and they are important factors for the global climate as well as human health problems. They consist of several hundreds of carbon nanospheres with ~40 nm in diameter. Fundamental physical properties of these carbon nanospheres and their fractal structures need to be understood in improving our knowledge on global climate and atmospheric aerosol pollution. In this report, nano- to micron-sized properties of soot particles analyzed by using transmission electron microscopy are reviewed. The results include high-resolution images of the carbon nanospheres and standard graphite samples as well as individual soot particles with various fractal structures.
