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• The GDI soot was harvested from a China VI passenger vehicle operated over the WLTC. • The Physicochemical properties of GDI soot were investigated. • The physicochemical properties of the SB4 are similar to those of the GDI soot. • The SB4 and GDI soot have almost the same oxidation reactivity. • The SB4 can serve as a surrogate for GDI soot for oxidation investigations. The purpose of the present study is to understand the physicochemical properties of the GDI soot and determine a GDI soot surrogate for the oxidation investigations. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyzer were used to characterize the soot properties, including the morphology, nanostructure, chemical composition, carbon chemical state and oxidation reactivity. The GDI soot sample was harvested from the gasoline particulate filter equipped on a modern China VI passenger vehicle operated over the Worldwide harmonized Light-duty Test Cycle. The obtained GDI soot comprises large numbers of near-spherical primary particles that cluster together to form aggregates with a mean gyration radius of 123.79 nm, and the mean diameter of primary particles is 27.63 nm. The primary particle exhibits a typical core–shell structure, and the mean values of fringe length, separation distance and tortuosity are 0.836 nm, 0.362 nm and 1.263, respectively. In addition to the carbon element, the oxygen element is another important component of soot particles, accounting for 6.28% of the total number of atoms. The carbon component is mainly composed of sp2 hybridized graphitic carbon and sp3 hybridized aliphatic carbon, and the ratio of sp2/sp3 is 2.02. Moreover, the apparent activation energy of soot sample is determined to be 141.7 kJ/mol. The Special Black 4 (SB4) was assessed as a potential surrogate for the GDI soot. The comparison of physicochemical properties shows that the SB4 and GDI soot have almost the same fractal dimension, gyration radius, primary particle size, fringe length, separation distance, tortuosity, sp2/sp3 ratio and apparent activation energy. The great similarities in physicochemical properties highlight that the SB4 can serve as a good GDI soot surrogate for the soot oxidation investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]