A randomly formed
particulate carbon material and may be coarse, fine and/or
colloidal in proportions depending on its origin. Soot consists of
variable quantities of carbonaceous and inorganic solids together with absorbed and occluded
tars and resins.
Note:
An unwanted by-product of incomplete combustion or
pyrolysis. Soot generated within flames consists essentially of aggregates of spheres of carbon.
Soot found in domestic fireplace chimneys contains few aggregates but may contain
substantial amounts of particulate fragments of
coke or
char. Soot from diesel engines consists essentially of aggregates together with tars and
resins. For historical reasons, the term soot is sometimes incorrectly used for
carbon black. This misleading use should be avoided.
Source:
PAC, 1995, 67, 473
(Recommended terminology for the description of carbon as a solid (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)) on page 504
Source:
PAC, 1990, 62, 2167
(Glossary of atmospheric chemistry terms (Recommendations 1990))
on page 2215
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
