A case study on laminar flame propagation of flame synthesis precursors using spherically propagating flame: Tetramethylsilane and its alkane counterpart.

In this work, the spherically propagating flame method was applied to the measurements of laminar flame propagation for the flame synthesis precursors. The laminar burning velocities of a typical precursor of silica nanoparticles, i.e. tetramethylsilane (TMS, Si(CH 3) 4), were measured, and a comparative study was carried out on its hydrocarbon counterpart, neopentane. The laminar burning velocities of the two fuels were measured at the initial pressure of 1 atm, initial temperature of 323 K and equivalence ratios of 0.7–1.5. The results show that the laminar burning velocities of TMS are much higher than those of neopentane, showing remarkable fuel molecular structure effects. Kinetic models of TMS and neopentane combustion were constructed and validated against the new experimental data in this work. Based on the rate of production analysis and sensitivity analysis, the critical pathways in the flames of TMS and neopentane were revealed. The fictitious diluent gas method was adopted to provide insight into the fuel molecular structure effects on the laminar burning velocities of TMS and neopentane. It is concluded that the relatively high adiabatic flame temperature of TMS is the driven force of the rapid laminar flame propagation of TMS compared with neopentane, while the chemical effect also promotes the laminar flame propagation of TMS, especially under near stoichiometric conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]