Optical Characterization of Biomass Soot Samples

Abstract

Soot from different biomass sources is investigated to develop absorbent coatings for use in solar cookers. Soot samples were analysed by spectral and solar reflectance in the range 280-2400 nm, by its organic elemental composition and through Raman spectroscopy. The soot was obtained from biomass burning of sugarcane, pine resin and firewood in a hearth. The averaged spectral reflectance for sugarcane soot is 3.5%, for wood-stove soot is 2.7% and the lower value corresponds to pine resin soot at 1.4%. Likewise, the lowest value of the solar reflectance was of 14.8 Wm−2 for pine resin soot. In addition, elemental composition analysis showed that pine resin also has the highest carbon content. Raman spectroscopy measurements were performed to find the structure and the degree of disorder in the graphite structure.