Sharif Digital Repository

Formation and thermal stability of nanothickness NiSi layer in Ni(Pt 4 at.%)/Si(1 0 0) and Ni0.6Si0.4(Pt 4 at.%)/Si(1 0 0) structures have been investigated using magnetron co-sputtering deposition method. Moreover, to study the effect of Si substrate in formation of NiSi and its thermal stability, we have used Ta diffusion barrier between the Ni0.6Si0.4 layer and the Si substrate. Post annealing treatment of the samples was performed in an N2 environment in a temperature range from 200 to 900 °C for 2 min. The samples were analyzed by four point probe sheet resistance (Rs) measurement, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. It was found that the annealing... 

The rate constants of the oxidation of CO on a number of pure and La 2O3 doped NiO/Al2O3 solid catalysts were correlated with the mole percent of dopant, calcinations temperature, surface area, pore volume and pore mouth diameter by an artificial neural network simulator. The cross validation method had to be used due to the scarcity of the data. A three-layer network with 3 nodes in the hidden layer was found to simulate the system well. © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest. All rights reserved  

The paper aims at understanding solidification phenomena and solid state precipitations during diffusion brazing of Hastelloy X nickel base superalloy using a ternary Ni–4.5Si–3.2 B (in wt-%) filler metal. The joint is featured by the formation of Ni-rich solid solution in an isothermal solidification zone, borides/silicide formation during eutectic-type solidification in an athermal solidification zone, on-cooling precipitation of fine nickel silicides in the joint centerline, in situ precipitation of Mo–Cr-rich borides in the diffusion affected zone and grain growth in the heat affected zone. The implication of the phase transformations on the joint properties is discussed. It is shown... 

Demand increasing for next generation portable and miniaturized electronics has aroused much interest to explore microscale and lightweight energy storage devices. Herein, we demonstrate successful development of flexible wire-shaped micro-supercapacitors (micro-SCs) based on novel CoNi2S4/E-NZP film@Cu wire electrode. The etched Ni-Zn-P (E-NZP) film was synthesized by directly deposition of NZP film on Cu wire, followed by a chemical etching process. Alkaline etching treatment provides a micro- and mesoporous structure with high surface area and facilitates the penetration of electrolyte ions into the electrode matrix. Then, CoNi2S4 nanosheets as electroactive material are electrochemically... 

The early stages of nucleation and growth of nanostructures can control the shape and final size of the fabricated nanostructure. Therefore, the study of the nucleation and growth mechanism of nanostructures is of great importance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the nucleation and growth mechanism of nickel nanocones from a chloride-based bath containing ethylene ammonium dichloride as a crystal modifier. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and chronoamperometry tests were employed to investigate the nucleation and growth mechanism and also the mechanism of crystal modifier performance on the growth of nanocones. Electrochemical studies revealed... 

The anode materials are one of the critical components in rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs). The monoclinic tungsten trioxide (mWO3) is introduced as interesting anode electrode for LIBs due to its good structure for intercalation and de-intercalation of lithium ions, high abundance and various oxidation state of tungsten and etc. In this study, we prepare and investigate the effect of various amounts of nickel dopant on characteristics and electrochemical properties of the mWO3 as the anode electrode in a rechargeable LIB. The experimental investigations confirm that the number of nickel atoms has a remarkable effect on controlling spherical particle diameter, crystallite size, and... 

Developing high-performance supercapacitors is of great significance in the area of renewable energies by virtue of having both high energy and power densities. In this work, an innovative strategy is employed for the fabrication of binder-free binary nickel–cobalt-sulfide (NCS) nanosheets (NSs) directly decorated onto the hydrothermal nickel-sulfide (Ni3S2) nanowires (NWs) as the positive electrodes. The NCS/Ni3S2-nickel foam (NF) positive electrodes rendered superior specific capacity of 499.1 mAh.g−1 at 6 A.g−1. Encapsulated iron into the carbon sphere hosts (Fe-HTCSs) are used as the negative counterparts, exhibiting remarkable specific capacitance of 336.6 F.g−1 (at 0.1 A.g−1). The... 

In Fenton-like oxidation processes, the use of biochar (BC) as support material for the nanoscale zero valent iron-nickel (nZVI-Ni) bimetallic particles attained much attention to activate persulfate (PS) for TCE degradation in aqueous medium. In present work, nZVI-Ni@BC particles with nZVI-Ni to BC mass ratio of 1:5 exhibited excellent results (> 99 % ± 0.24) for TCE degradation. The physico-chemical characteristics, surface morphologies, and elemental mapping of the synthesized nZVI-Ni@BC particles investigated through SEM, EDX, TEM, XPS, XRD, BET and FTIR spectroscopy. For the nZVI-Ni@BC-persulfate system, the effects of PS concentration, initial pH, inorganic ions and natural organic... 

High temperature shape memory NiTiHf thin films with varying hafnium contents up to 28.7 at.% were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering using simultaneous sputter deposition from separate elemental targets. The required film composition was achieved by adjusting the power ratio to the targets. The as-deposited films were amorphous; a post deposition annealing was performed at 550 °C to crystallize the films. Two-micron thick films were characterized by energy dispersive spectroscopy in a scanning electron microscope, temperature controlled X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and atomic force microscopy. The results showed that above 10 at.% Hf additions the transformation... 

The development of electrode materials with simple preparation, favorable price, excellent electrocatalytic activity, and stability are some of the most important issues in the field of electrochemistry. Herein, we prepared Ni–Co/Ni–Co–O–P cotton flower like on a copper sheet (CS) by a convenient, efficient, and scalable electrodeposition method. The Ni–Co/Ni–Co–O–P was employed as effective binder free electrode material in two different applications such as electrocatalytic water splitting and acetaminophen (APAP) sensor. Remarkably, the Ni–Co/Ni–Co–O–P@CS exhibits low overpotentials of 310 and 90 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions in alkaline media, respectively.... 

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with its sluggish kinetics has imposed a significant barrier to the sustainable and green generation of hydrogen fuel (via electrolysis of water) and the development of metal-air batteries. In this study, we report an efficient and novel OER electrocatalyst based on NiSe2nanoparticles (NPs) and the naturally abundant halloysite clay mineral. The NiSe2/halloysite nanocomposite (NiSe2/H) was prepared by a simple one-step hydrothermal route. The electrocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized nanocomposite and its components (pristine NiSe2and halloysite) toward OER in 1.0 KOH solution was examined. The NiSe2/H nanocomposite exhibited a significantly... 

There has been a growing demand for materials with superior absorption capabilities, such as strong absorbing capacity, thin thickness, and light weight, to solve challenges related to EM radiation pollution. While the majority of the research is focused on optimizing material compositions, component microstructure and absorber structure are also critical factors for improving microwave absorption performance. In this research, we show how the microstructure of components and absorber design may increase dissipation features. Solvothermal and hydrothermal methods were utilized for synthesizing mesoporous CuS micro-particles with a 3D hierarchical structure as a dielectric component and... 

Microscale, flexible, and lightweight electrodes are of interest for the generation of light and miniaturized energy storage systems such as microsupercapacitors. Wire or fiber-shaped electrodes can be considered as potential candidates for microsupercapacitor fabrication. Herein, a facile strategy for the preparation of high electrochemical performance fiber-shaped microsupercapacitors based on Ni(OH)2-Ni-Ti3C2 film on a copper wire (CW) electrode is presented. We employed a porous cauliflower-like Ni-Ti3C2 MXene film as the supporting scaffold to bridge a Ni(OH)2 active substance with a Cu wire current collector. This hierarchical structure supplies a high surface area, many electroactive... 

Electro-oxidation of methanol in alkaline solution at a glassy carbon electrode electrochemically modified by a conductive polymeric meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato nickel(II), abbreviated as poly-NiTCPP and also meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin with incorporated nickel(II) cations, abbreviated as, poly-TCPP/Ni, were investigated and compared. Both films were prepared by oxidative electro-polymerization of complexes by repetitive cyclic voltammetry (RCV) in 0.1 M NaOH aqueous solution. The electrochemical properties and behaviors and also kinetic values of both films have been characterized and compared using cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and electrochemical... 

In this paper, CdS nanoparticles as a visible light active photocatalyst were coupled by NiFe2O4 and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to form CdS–NiFe2O4/rGO nanocomposite by facile hydrothermal methods. The CdS–NiFe2O4/rGO nanocomposite shows enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light illumination. In addition to improved photocatalytic performance, this prepared nanocomposite shows increased photostability and is magnetically separable from the aqueous media. The degradation rate constant (kapp) of the optimized photocatalyst, i.e. CdS–NiFe2O4 (0.05)/rGO 25 wt% nanocomposite, was higher than the corresponding CdS and NiFe2O4 nanoparticles by... 

The paper aims at understanding solidification phenomena and solid state precipitations during diffusion brazing of Hastelloy X nickel base superalloy using a ternary Ni–4.5Si–3.2 B (in wt-%) filler metal. The joint is featured by the formation of Ni-rich solid solution in an isothermal solidification zone, borides/silicide formation during eutectic-type solidification in an athermal solidification zone, on-cooling precipitation of fine nickel silicides in the joint centerline, in situ precipitation of Mo–Cr-rich borides in the diffusion affected zone and grain growth in the heat affected zone. The implication of the phase transformations on the joint properties is discussed. It is shown... 

We demonstrate for the first time the application of p-NiFe2O4/n-Fe2O3 composite thin films as anode materials for light-assisted electrolysis of water. The p-NiFe2O4/n-Fe2O3 composite thin films were deposited on planar fluorinated tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass as well as on 3D array of nanospike (NSP) substrates. The effect of substrate (planar FTO and 3D-NSP) and percentage change of each component (i.e., NiFe2O4 and Fe2O3) of composite was studied on photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation reaction. This work also includes the performance comparison of p-NiFe2O4/n-Fe2O3 composite (planar and NSP) devices with pure hematite for PEC water oxidation. Overall, the nanostructured... 

The design of 3-dimensional (3-D) nanostructured materials on the novel current collectors has recently considered as a promising strategy for developing high-performance supercapacitors. Herein, in the first step, a novel 3-D nickel nanocone arrays (NCAs) are synthesized on the surface of nickel plate (NP) by a one-step electrodeposition method without using any template (NCAs-NP). Then, a simple and efficient method is developed for fabricating ternary metal sulfides electrodes based on the electrodeposition of nickel cobalt iron sulfide (Ni-Co-Fe-S) ultrathin nanosheets on the surface of NCAs-NP. Taking advantages of the unique flower like structure of Ni-Co-Fe-S ultrathin nanosheets and... 

Preparing a selective, efficient, and low-cost solar absorber is one of the main challenges in solar to thermal energy conversion. In this paper, black electroless Ni–P (ENi-P) solar absorber has been fabricated, and the effect of nanoporous TiO2 antireflection layer (ARL) on its optical and corrosion properties has been investigated. The optimum black coating was obtained by blackening in 9 M nitric acid solution at 50 °C for 40 s, in which a solar absorptance of 99.3% was achieved. Deposition of TiO2 ARL increased the solar absorptance of coating to 99.7% and addition of 0.8 g Pluronic F127 (F127) as pore former, further increased this value to 99.9% and solar-to-heat efficiency of the... 

The phase-pure multiple ternary or quaternary metal selenides in energy boosting, have not been reported yet. Here, self-supported porous crystalline Zn–Ni–Co/Cu selenides microballs arrays were constructed by selenation of the designed tubular Cu(OH)2 arrays decorated with ultrathin Zn–Co–Ni tri-metallic hydroxide on carbon cloth substrate. For this rational engineering, a novel precursor sample was firstly prepared by conversion of deposited Cu layer to hollow tubular Cu(OH)2 arrays on carbon cloth, then, Zn-Co–Ni layered ternary hydroxides with a thin layer structure was deposited around this tubular arrays. The selenation with an exciting morphology change from amorphous tube to highly...