Soot formation under rich combustion conditions

Carbon chemistry occurs most efficiently in circumstellar and diffuse interstellar clouds. The circumstellar envelopes of carbon-rich stars are the heart of the most complex carbon chemistry that is analogous to soot formation in candle flames or industrial smoke stacks (26). There is evidence that chemical pathways, similar to combustion processes on Earth, form benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and subsequently soot and complex aromatic networks under high temperature conditions in circumstellar regions (27,28). Molecular synthesis occurs in the circumstellar environment on timescales as short as several hundred years (29). Acetylene (C2H2) appears to be the... 

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