Sharif Digital Repository

This work utilizes the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) calculations and examines the influence of rarefication on the mixing length and effective diffusion coefficient in a two-species mixing problem. There have been efforts in past rarefied mixing flow studies to bridge between the mixing evolution rate and Knudsen number. A careful review of those efforts shows that the past derived relations did not determine the weights of Reynolds (or Peclet) number in the rarefaction influences. Although they indicated that an increase in Knudsen would decrease the mixing length, such reductions were primarily due to the Reynolds (or Peclet) reduction. Therefore, those studies could not explicitly... 

In the present research, we investigate the synergistic effects of Ru-doping and Ar/H2 reduction treatment on the photoelectrochemical water splitting performance and hydrogen evolution rate of TiO2 nanotube array photoelectrodes. The Ti-Ru alloy with 0.2 at. % Ru was used to grow anodic self-organized Ru-doped TiO2 nanotube layers. An ideal synergy between Ar/H2 reduction treatment and Ru-doping results in the extended absorption toward the visible light region and improved photoelectrocatalytic activity. The black Ru-doped TiO2-x photoanode's water splitting rate improves remarkably (∼ninefold) compared to the black TiO2-x sample (∼twofold). Moreover, the black Ru-doped TiO2-x photoanode... 

Intracellular production of recombinant proteins in prokaryotes necessitates subsequent disruption of cells for protein recovery. Since the cell disruption and subsequent purification steps largely contribute to the total production cost, scalable tools for protein release into the extracellular space is of utmost importance. Although there are several ways for enhancing protein release, changing culture conditions is rather a simple and scalable approach compared to, for example, molecular cell design. This contribution aimed at quantitatively studying process technological means to boost protein release of a periplasmatic recombinant protein (alkaline phosphatase) from E. coli.... 

Enhancing stability against photocorrosion and improving photocurrent response are the main challenges toward the development of cupric oxide (CuO) based photocathodes for solar-driven hydrogen production. In this paper, stable and efficient CuO-photocathodes have been developed using in situ materials engineering and through gold-palladium (Au-Pd) nanoparticles deposition on the CuO surface. The CuO photocathode exhibits a photocurrent generation of ∼3 mA/cm2 at 0 V v/s RHE. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis and X-ray spectroscopy (XPS) confirm the formation of oxygen-rich (O-rich) CuO film which demonstrates a highly stable photocathode with retained...