Sharif Digital Repository

Due to the important role of surface-related properties of NPs in their biological behavior, simple and fast methods that could precisely demonstrate accurate information about NPs' surface, structure and morphology are highly desirable. In this study a set of surface morphological nano-descriptors (size, shape, surface area, agglomeration state, curvature, corner count and aspect ratio) have been defined and extracted from Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images of nanoparticles (NPs) by Digital Image Processing methods. The extracted data represent a thorough description of the surface and morphologies of NPs lying beyond their TEM images and can supply the data required for a... 

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of phosphate solution with Ca2+ additives on weight, surface morphology and electrochemical behavior of phosphated Zn-Ni film. In order to characterize structure and morphology of surface, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied, respectively. Results showed that the main composition in produced coatings was hopeite Zn3(PO4)2·4H2O, which has high corrosion resistance. On one hand, in the presence of Ca2+ cations in solution, the weight of phosphate coating decreased, but on the other hand surface uniformity and corrosion resistance of the coating increased  

Three-dimensional TiO2 nanostructures take advantages of large surface area and superior light-harvesting efficiency, as well as appropriate charge carrier transport and separation features. Here in this research, we report for the first time on measurement of density of localized trap states in three-dimensional TiO2 nanostructures with various morphologies. Bare 1-dimensional TiO2 nanofibers have been synthesized via two different methods: electrospinning and hydrothermal processes. The surface of TiO2 nanofibrous has been modified with nanoparticles and nanobranches thorough second hydrothermal process. Various morphologies of nanostructured TiO2 have been fabricated including... 

CaO–La2O3 mixed oxides were synthesized by co-precipitation coupled with Li doping through wet impregnation. These were used as catalysts for transesterification of canola oil and methanol toward biodiesel production. To determine the structure and morphology of the prepared catalysts, they were characterized by the XRD, FESEM, BET, and basic strength measurements. Under optimum reaction conditions of methanol/oil molar ratio of 15:1, 5 wt% catalyst at 65 °C, 96.3% conversion was obtained in 2.5 h of reaction duration. Moreover, the catalyst demonstrated a rather high stability where reuse of up to five cycles without significant loss of performance observed. © 2016 The Korean Society of... 

Recently, the use of biodegradable polymers became the applicable solution to reduce the environmental concerns, which are created by plastic wastes as well as restrictions of petroleum-based synthetic polymers. By this point of view, polylactic acid (PLA) as a biodegradable and bio-based polymer is resolving both aforementioned issues. While, the high cost of PLA and its slow biodegradation rate make researchers to blend it with a faster one, for instance, thermoplastic starch (TPS). Adding TPS into PLA can influence on the morphological structure, thermal stability, and biodegradability. In this study, the well-tuned co-plasticized TPS via sorbitol/glycerol mixture was melt mixed with PLA... 

Nanodiamond (ND)is an allotrope of carbon nanomaterials which exhibits many outstanding physical, mechanical, thermal, optical and biocompatibility characteristics. Meanwhile, ND particles possess unique spherical shape containing diamond-like structure at the core with graphitic carbon outer shell which intuitively contains many oxygen-containing functional groups at the outer surface. Such superior properties and unique structural morphology of NDs are essentially attractive to develop polymer composites with multifunctional properties. However, despite a long history from the discovery of NDs, which is dated back to the1960s, this nanoparticle has been less explored in the field of... 

In this study, we prepared cerium oxide (CeO2) hybridized with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets using the hydrothermal method. CeO2 and CeO2/rGO were evaluated as electrode materials for use in supercapacitor applications. The structure and morphology of the synthesized materials were investigated. Cyclic voltammetry tests determined a high specific capacitance of 581 F g−1 for CeO2/rGO at a scan rate of 10 mV s−1 in 2 M KOH. In addition, the CeO2/rGO electrode retained 91 % of its initial capacitance after 5000 consecutive cycles, thereby indicating its excellent electrochemical stability. The excellent stability of CeO2/rGO was due to a synergistic effect between CeO2 and rGO. CeO2... 

The effect of pulse reverse current (PRC) method on Ni-Mo coatings electroplated from chloride solution was investigated by various plating parameters such as plating duration, the anodic duty cycle, the anodic current density and the cathodic current density. By increasing the anodic duty cycle and anodic current density, the Mo content of coatings reached 68wt.% and 78wt.%, respectively at cathodic current densities of 500 and 300mAcm-2. The Mo content of coatings increases by the preferential dissolution of Ni on the anodic pulse and also by the replenishment of Mo complexes in the diffusion layer near the substrate surface during the anodic pulse. In comparison with the direct current... 

Nanoporous/cracked structures of cobalt oxide (Co3O4) electrodes were successfully fabricated by electroplating of zinc–cobalt onto previously formed TiO2 nanotubes by anodizing of titanium, leaching of zinc in a concentrated alkaline solution and followed by drying and annealing at 400 °C. The structure and morphology of the obtained Co3O4 electrodes were characterized by X-ray diffraction, EDX analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the obtained Co3O4 electrodes were composed of the nanoporous/cracked structures with an average pore size of about 100 nm. The electrochemical capacitive behaviors of the nanoporous Co3O4 electrodes were investigated by cyclic... 

In this report, crack-free nanostructured barium titanate thin films are prepared by a sol-gel processing method. Glacial acetic acid, barium acetate, titanium tetraisopropyl alkoxide, 2-propanol and deionized water are used as precursors for preparing stable precursor solution. Then very thin films (thickness=26 nm) are deposited on fused silica substrates. In order to prepare crack-free thin films of BaTiO3, much attention is given to solvent evaporation process and a controlled pre-drying process is developed. It is found that the control of the process, especially in the initial stage of drying process is crucial and important for preparation of the crack-free ultrathin nanostructured... 

The morphological manipulation, structural characterization, and optical properties of different cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanostructures are reported. Two different CdSe nanostructures, i.e., nanorods and nanoparticles, were grown by controlling the concentration of precursors (i.e., cadmium nitrate and selenium dioxide) in ethanolamine solvent. By manipulating the kinetic parameter of the process (i.e., growth rate) under constant growth driving force (i.e., degree of supersaturation), the morphology of CdSe nanostructures can be tailored from nanorods to nanoparticles. The optical properties of CdSe nanostructures were investigated using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. The... 

Considerable researches have been focused on zinc-iron (Zn-Fe) alloy coatings due to their superior characteristics among zinc alloy electrodeposits in recent years. The corrosion behavior of these coatings depends on the phase structure and morphology of the Zn-Fe deposits. In this work the effects of pulse plating variables such as current density, off-time, frequency and pulse modes on the morphology and phase structure of Zn-Fe deposits was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) analysis. The corrosion behavior of these coatings was measured by means of polarization curves and Neutral salt spray tests. It was shown... 

Tungsten trioxide has been prepared by using P-PTA as a precursor on alumina substrates by spin coating method. Palladium introduced on WO 3 film via electrolysis deposition by using palladium chloride as catalytic precursor. The catalytic precursor was introduced on the series of films with different morphologies. X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and XPS were applied to analyze structure and morphology of the fabricated thin films. Then we measured variation of samples' electrical conductivity of pure and Pd added films in air and diluted hydrogen. Addition of Pd resulted in a remarkable improvement of the hydrogen sensing properties of WO 3 by detection of... 

This paper presents a dry mechanochemical process to produce hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles. Two distinct chemical reactions are introduced to prepare HAp powders using milling process. Structural and morphological properties of the obtained materials are studied by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results reveal that the single crystal HAp nanoparticles have been successfully produced in metallic and polymeric vials through two different experimental procedures. Tempered chrome steel and polyamide-6 materials are adopted as the metallic and polymeric vials respectively. Nanoellipse, nanorod and nanosphere powders are obtained in these experimental procedures.... 

In this research, the equilibrium and dynamic adsorption studies of the CO2 upon the MIL-101(Cr) metal-organic framework (MOF) as well as its GNP hybrid composites, the MIL-101(Cr)/GNP, were performed. First, the hybrid composite samples were synthesized by adding various amounts of GNP in an in situ manner during the preparation of the MIL-101(Cr). The prepared materials were characterized through several physicochemical analyses, including powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), adsorption of nitrogen at 77.4 K, Fourier transfer infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermal analysis (DTG), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). It was demonstrated that the synthesized MIL-101(Cr)/GNP... 

A new Zinc phosphating bath, which produces coatings at relatively lower temperatures within a reasonable time by using of chemical accelerators has been devised. Improvement of the bath performance by the addition of divalent cations like calcium, nickel has been studied. Bath formulation and operating conditions have been optimized by coating weight determinations. Stable samples of phosphating formulations with and without calcium and nickel salts were prepared and the structure and morphology of the phosphate coatings were determined by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques, scanning electron microscopy. ASTMB117 salt spray test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were... 

WO3 films with thicknesses between 550 and 853 nm were deposited on glass substrates using the electron beam evaporation method at room temperature. The microstructures and surface roughness of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was observed that the crystalline structure of the WO3 thin films significantly changes from the amorphous to crystalline states with a crystalline texture, and the mosaicity and grain size dependent on the film thickness. The transmittance spectra of the obtained WO3 films were measured in the range from 340 to 850 nm, and the Swanepoel method was used to determine the refractive indices and the thicknesses of the... 

Membrane separator based on the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is prepared via the non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) method with water and ethanol as non-solvent and a mixture of dimethylformamide (DMF) and acetone as solvent. The effect of various acetone/DMF ratios and non-solvent material on the physical and electrochemical properties of the separator is studied by FE-SEM, tensile strength, electrochemical AC-impedance spectroscopy (EIS), thermal stability, and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The charge-discharge studies are carried out by fabricating a lithium foil/polymer electrolyte membrane/LiFePO4 cell. The results show that with the change of solvent and non-solvent, the... 

WO3 films with thicknesses between 550 and 853 nm were deposited on glass substrates using the electron beam evaporation method at room temperature. The microstructures and surface roughness of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was observed that the crystalline structure of the WO3 thin films significantly changes from the amorphous to crystalline states with a crystalline texture, and the mosaicity and grain size dependent on the film thickness. The transmittance spectra of the obtained WO3 films were measured in the range from 340 to 850 nm, and the Swanepoel method was used to determine the refractive indices and the thicknesses of the... 

The development of efficient and cost-effective catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction is highly desirable for applications that are based on sustainable and clean technologies. In this study, we report the synthesis of a series of cerium(iv) oxide and nickel diselenide nanocomposites (NiSe2/CeO2) as efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in an alkaline medium. The ratios of the two substances were optimized to reach the highest catalytic activity. The structure and morphology of synthesized materials were investigated by XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, BET, XPS, and TEM techniques. It was observed that the nanocomposite with a 10 : 1 mass ratio of NiSe2to CeO2showed the best...