| Abstract
| - Carbon-cluster anions, CN-, are very reactive toward SO2 (sticking probability of 0.012 ± 0.005 for C27- at25 °C), in contrast to their inertness toward other common atmospheric gases and pollutants. In flow reactorexperiments at ambient temperature and near atmospheric pressure, primary adsorption of SO2 by the carboncluster anions, N = 4−60, yields CNSO2- or CN-1S-. The inferred elimination of neutral CO2 is also detectedas meta-stable decay in collision-induced dissociation. At higher temperatures, the reaction of SO2 with nascentcarbon clusters yields CN-1SO- as well as undetected CO. The size-dependent initial reactivity reflects thepreviously established structural transitions (i.e., from chain to cyclic to cage structures). Such carbon clustersare formed in sooting flames and may act as nuclei for the formation of primary soot particles and serve asmodels for the local structural features of active soot particle sites for black-carbon soot. The facile generationof reactive carbon-sulfide and -sulfinate units may therefore have implications for understanding the healthand environmental effects attributed to the coincidence of soot and SO2.
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