The growth mechanism of carbon clusters in the gas phase Original Research Article

Kinetic equations were established and solved for the growing process of carbon clusters. The size distribution of the carbon clusters in the observed mass spectrum was simulated with different growing models. The best fitted one was the arbitrary combination model, indicating that the clustering process was a random association between any pair of the species. In the mass spectrum the depletion at the medium size cluster region was also simulated with an assumption of their large association crosssections. These clusters have a bowl-like structure with many dangling bonds on the peripheral carbon atoms.