Sharif Digital Repository

Composites of phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin with Closite Na+ and Closite 30B up to 20 wt% loadings were prepared by solution mixing. Tensile testing showed that both pristine and organically modified clays increased considerably the mechanical properties of PF resin at 2.5 wt% loading followed by marginal improvement or even sacrificed properties at high loadings. DMA and DSC analyses suggested development of a highly crosslinked and well adhered interphase around silicate layers. A novel three-phase model considering the interphase region was proposed to predict composite modulus. The model was successfully employed to correlate morphological characteristics and mechanical properties of... 

In the present work, an improved method is developed for preparing highly pure ultrathin barium titanate nanostructured films with desired structural and morphological characteristics. In contrast to other approaches, our method can be carried out at a relatively lower temperature to obtain barium titanate ultrathin films free from secondary phases, impurities, and cracks. To reach an in-depth understanding of scientific basis of the proposed process, and in order to disclose the mechanism of formation and growth of barium titanate ultrathin film, in-detail analysis is carried out using XRD, SEM, FE-SEM, and AFM techniques aided by theoretical calculations. The effects of calcining... 

The morphological characteristics and electronic structure of the BaTiO 3 films grown by pulsed-laser deposition technique have been investigated. AFM and FE-SEM images reveal columnar growth characteristic of these films. Utilizing spectrophotometer, optical band gap of the films were reckoned to be about 3.76 eV. Both dα/dE and PL vs. E plots reveal numerous luminance states in the gap. Despite the presence of many luminance faults in the gap, cations manage to preserve their electronic states  

False alarms ratios of up to 86% in Intensive Care Units (ICU) decrease quality of care, impacting both clinical staff and patients through slowing off response time and noise tribulation. We present a novel algorithm to predict heart arrhythmias in ICUs. We focus on five life-threatening arrhythmias: Asystole, Extreme Bradycardia, Extreme Tachycardia, Ventricular Tachycardia, and Ventricular Fibrillation. The algorithm is based on novel features using only 12 seconds of one ECG channel to predict the arrhythmias. Our new feature sets include different SQI and physiological features and the features used in obstructive sleep apnoea detection. We also proposed a new morphological... 

We investigate the use of simple nontoxic Cu2SnS3 (CTS) nanoparticles (NPs) as low-cost dopant-free hole-transport materials (HTMs) a substitute for spiro-OMeTAD in an n-i-p mesoscopic architecture of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Besides, this work confirms the critical role of the crystalline phase of CTS NPs on the performance of the device. Using a facile one-pot heating-up procedure, pure zincblende and wurtzite structures of CTS NPs were obtained by sulfur element and thiourea as the sulfur source, respectively, and were dispersed in chloroform to make very stable nonpolar ink that is compatible with the perovskite. Nanoparticles with the wurtzite crystal phase showed much better... 

The morphological characteristics as well the optical properties of Ca-doped BiFeO3 films grown by pulsed-laser deposition technique have been investigated. AFM images revealed that calcium has a radical effect on the surface features of BiFeO3 films. By utilizing spectrophotometer, transmission behaviour of the films was investigated. Local IV characteristics of the films disclosed about three orders of magnitude enhancement concerning electrical conductivity through Ca doping. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that Ca can reduce the valence state of iron in the compound  

Attempts were made to trace the effect of organoclay (OC) on the rheological and mechanical behaviors of the low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) blends. To do this effectively, in addition to LDPE/EVA/OC system, pure LDPE and LDPE/EVA blends were also examined as model systems. The rheological behavior was determined by the capillary rheometer. Morphological characterization was also carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and theoretical approach based on interfacial energies. Shear viscosity, tensile strength and elastic modulus of LDPE/EVA were found to decrease by increasing the EVA... 

Developing low-cost, scalable and reproducible synthesis methods for water oxidation reaction (WOR) catalysts is highly desirable and also challenging in energy, environmental and industrial applications. In this context, electrochemical deposition is known as an easy and cost-effective technique in nanomaterial growth. Herein, cobalt-based nanoflakes were grown on a flexible and commercially available steel mesh substrate by electrodeposition approach with a crystalline structure as a mixture of oxide, hydroxide and oxyhydroxide phases. For the first time, the correlation between electrodeposition parameters, time and current density, and morphological characteristics of the grown... 

The most important issue during synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) is to avoid particle agglomeration and adhesion. There have been several attempts to use special substances such as organic surfactants, polymers and stable ligands for this purpose. In this study, silver NPs were synthesised with and without gelatin macromolecules, as a green natural biopolymer, which resulted in NPs with varying shapes and sizes. The effect of morphological characteristics on the antibacterial and antifungal properties of the synthesised NPs were studied, by comparing Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) versus Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria as well as fungi (Candida albicans) by calculation of... 

Changes of morphological parameters of oil shale under thermal conditions are investigated. Analyses are based on 26 micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) images of Green River immature shale rock available under creative commons license. Several image processing and characterization algorithms are applied to sequential high-resolution micro-CT images of oil shale samples undergoing pyrolysis. Pore-scale morphology is extracted and quantified, providing results for pore size, throat size, grain size, specific surface, coordination number, and fracture aperture. The results demonstrate critical increases of porosity, coordination number and fracture aperture in the temperature range from 390... 

The current investigation was to present composite membranes with strong interfacial adhesion between top polymeric selective layer and the bottom micro-porous support layer with appropriate gas permeation behavior and practically suitable processing characteristics. To this end, a series of acrylate-terminated polyurethanes (APUs) based on poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) with different molecular weights (Mn) of 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 4000 g/mol, toluene diisocyanate (TDI), and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) were synthesized. Composite membranes were prepared with UV-curable acrylate-terminated polyurethane/acrylate diluent (APUAs) as selective layer and polyester/polysulfone (PS/PSF) as... 

Efficient electron transport layers (ETLs) play a pivotal role in the performance of solar cells. In recent years, Indium sulfide (In2S3) has been studied as a promising ETL in CuInGaS(e)2, Cu2ZnSnS(e)4, and perovskite solar cells. Despite several studies on spray-deposited In2S3, there is no complete experimental investigation on In2S3 thin films. The effect of the molar ratio of S/In and the type of indium precursor on the structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of sprayed-In2S3 layers has been studied. Films were characterized using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical transmission (UV-Vis), Mott-Schottky analysis, four-point probe, and... 

This study explores the effect of Guar gum as an eco-friendly additive on concrete mechanical characteristics. In the first stage, the slump and relative humidity tests were carried out for the fresh mortar, and tensile and compressive strengths were then determined for fifteen different mixture designs with two different curing times. Further, an exponential correlation was obtained between the ultrasonic pulse velocity and the compression test results. Additionally, scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to assess the bond between aggregates and Guar gum. At last, the Taguchi method and ANOVA were utilized to conduct the optimum states of the mechanical characteristics of the... 

A series of biodegradable acrylic terminated polyurethanes (APUs) based on poly(ε-caprolactone) diol (PCL), aliphatic 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and hydroxyethyl methyl acrylate (HEMA) was synthesized as potential materials for hard tissue biomedical applications. PCLs with low molecular weights of 1000 and 2000 g/mol were employed to provide different amounts of end capped urethane acrylate in APUs. To control crosslink density, a mixture of two different reactive diluents including mono-functional HEMA and bi-functional ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) with different weight ratios was incorporated into the APUs, called here PUAs. Morphological characteristics and mechanical... 

The aim of this study was to investigate the thermal behavior of Mg-doped calcium phosphate compounds. Nanocrystalline HA and β-TCP mixtures containing different magnesium contents were synthesized via an alkoxide sol gel method. The ratio of (Ca+Mg)P was kept constant at 1.67, and the Mg content ranged between 0 and 3 mol%. The influence of magnesium on the phase composition, chemical structure, thermal behavior and morphological characteristics of nanopowders was analyzed using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Simultaneous Thermogravimetry and Differential Thermal Analysis (STA/DTA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron... 

This article examines the physical and mechanical characteristics of mixtures of two different synthetic rubbers, namely styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and nitril-butadiene rubber (NBR), with novolac type phenolicresin (PH). According to Taguchi experimental design method, it is shown that the addition of PH increases the crosslinking density of rubber phase probably due to its curative effects. Thermal analysis of the blends indicates that, contrary to NBR/PH blend, thermal stability of SBR/PH blend is dependent on sulfur content due to predominant polysulfidic crosslinks formed in SBR. Slight shift in glass-transition temperature (Tg) of pure SBR and NBR vulcanizates by the addition of PH...