The many faces of soot: characterization of soot nanoparticles produced by engines.

Soot nanoparticles produced by engines constitute a threat to human health. For the analytical chemist, soot is a hard nut to crack as the released particles undergo rapid changes in their size, shape, and number concentration. The complete characterization of soot will be essential to meet future low-emission standards. Besides measuring the light extinction, modern analytical chemistry can determine a variety of less-known effects, such as condensation properties, immune response in vertebrates, and impact on the cardiovascular function of a beating heart. Photon emission and in particular Raman spectroscopy provides information on the nanocrystallinity, while thermoelectron emission allows the number of electrical particles to be counted. Even the "simple" combustion of soot nanoparticles offers potential for the characterization of the particles.