Investigations that rank the tendencies of single-component fuels to form soot have given useful insights into how molecules and local molecular structure influences the conversion of carbon in fuel to soot. These studies can provide fundamental understanding of how functional group chemistry influences the products formed during pyrolysis or combustion. A series of experiments have been conducted which investigate the conversion of oxygenated and hydrocarbon C 2 molecules (ethanol, ethane, and

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... ethylene) to particulate matter (PM) and other species (CO, CO 2 ). Single-component fuels have been tested in a laminar flow reactor at concentrations of 8000 ppmv, under pyrolysis conditions. Size and mass distributions of particulates are reported, measured by means of a differential mobility spectrometer (Cambustion DMS500).