Investigation of morphology, structure and composition of biomass-oil soot particles

► Both particles of the biomass-oil soot and carbon black contained the same elements and had the same spherical shapes with average diameters of 50 and 40nm, respectively. ► There are same oxygen functional groups (CO, OCO and COC) on the surfaces of both particles, except that the COH appears on the surface of biomass soot particles. ► The two carbon materials virtually had indistinguishable perturbed graphitic or turbostratic internal structures. Biomass-oil soot (BS) particles were characterized by a range of analytical techniques. A comparative analysis with commercial carbon black (CB), a surrogate for diesel soot particles, was carried out. The experimental results showed that the morphologies of BS and CB particles were both spherical, with average diameters of 50 and 40nm, respectively. There were only a few differences between the elemental composition of BS and CB. The groups (CO, OCO and COC) were presented on the surfaces of CB and BS. Moreover, it was also found that COH group was appeared on the surface of BS. BS contained more acidic and basic sites than CB, which was ascribed to the complex mixtures of biomass oil. Both BS and CB had virtually indistinguishable perturbed graphitic or turbostratic internal structures. Thus, CB can be a potential alternative to evaluate the aggregation and tribological behavior of BS in lubricating oils.