Sharif Digital Repository

In this study, titania-ceria-graphene quantum dot (TC-GQD) nanocomposite was synthesized by hydrothermal method for the first time. The prepared nanomaterials were characterized by XRD, FTIR dynamic light scattering (DLS), FESEM, HRTEM, and EDX spectroscopy along with elemental mapping. The synergistic effect of the nanocomposite components was studied by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and electrical conductivity meter. The results showed that band gap of TC-GQD nanocomposite was shifted to visible lights relative to its components (1.3 eV), and electrical conductivity of the sample was significant increased to 89.5 μS cm−1. After chemical and physical characterization, prepared new... 

A horizontally oriented liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction (HOLLLME) setup was developed and applied for the isolation of two major estrogens from aquatic media. In contrast to the conventional procedure, in this setup the extracting microdrop was suspended from a horizontally positioned needle in order to provide much higher stability to the extracting phase. The developed HOLLLME approach was applied to isolate two major selected estrogens from aquatic media followed by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) determination. Estrogens were, initially, extracted from water samples into hexane and subsequently, the back extraction stage was performed with 6 μL of sodium... 

A novel solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was fabricated by electrospinning method in which a polymeric solution was converted to nanofibers using high voltages. A thin stainless steel wire was coated by the network of polymeric nanofibers. The polymeric nanofiber coating on the wire was mechanically stable due to the fine and continuous nanofibers formation around the wire with a three dimensional structure. Polyamide (nylon 6), due to its suitable characteristics was used to prepare the unbreakable SPME nanofiber. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of this new coating showed a diameter range of 100-200nm for polyamide nanofibers with a homogeneous and porous surface... 

A headspace adsorptive microextraction technique was developed using a novel polyaniline-nylon-6 (PANI-N6) nanofiber sheet, fabricated by electrospinning. The homogeneity and the porosity of the prepared PANI-N6 sheet were studied using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nanofibers diameters were found to be around 200nm. The novel nanofiber sheet was examined as an extracting medium to isolate some selected chlorobenzenes (CBs), as model compounds, from aquatic media. The extracted analytes were desorbed using μL-amounts of solvent and eventually an aliquot of extractant was injected into gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Various parameters affecting the extraction and... 

Novel unbreakable solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber coatings were fabricated by electrospinning method in which the polymeric solution was converted to nanofibers using high voltages. Four different polymers, polyurethane (PU), polycarbonate (PC), polyamide (PA) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were prepared as the fiber coatings on thin stainless steel wires. The extraction efficiencies of new coatings were investigated by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) of some environmentally important chlorobenzenes from aqueous samples followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Among them, PU showed a prominent efficiency. Effects of coating time and polymer... 

A micro-SPE technique was developed by fabricating a rather small package including a polypropylene membrane shield containing the appropriate sorbent. The package was used for the extraction of some triazine herbicides from aqueous samples. Solvent desorption was subsequently performed in a microvial and an aliquot of extractant was injected into GC-MS. Various sorbents including aniline-ortho-phenylene diamine copolymer, newly synthesized, polypyrrole, multiwall carbon nanotube, C18 and charcoal were examined as extracting media. Among them, conductive polymers exhibited better performance. Influential parameters including extraction and desorption time, desorption solvent and the ionic... 

A headspace solid-phase dynamic extraction (HS-SPDE) technique was developed by the use of polypyrrole (PPy) sorbent, electropolymerized inside the surface of a needle, as a possible alternative to solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Thermal desorption was subsequently, employed to transfer the extracted analytes into the injection port of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The PPy sorbent including polypyrrole-dodecyl sulfate (PPy-DS) was deposited on the interior surface of a stainless steel needle from the corresponding aqueous electrolyte by applying a constant deposition potential. The homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the coating were examined using the... 

Liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction (LLLME) in combination with HPLC and UV detection has been used as a sensitive method for the determination of ephedrine in urine samples. Extraction process was performed in a homemade total glass vial without using a Teflon ring, usually employed. Ephedrine was first extracted from 3.5 mL of urine sample (pH 12) into a microfilm of toluene/benzene (50:50). The analyte was subsequently back extracted into an acidic microdrop solution (pH 2) suspended in the organic phase. The extract was then injected into the HPLC system directly. An enrichment factor of 137 along with a good sample clean-up was obtained under the optimized conditions. The calibration... 

In this study, QuEChERS combined with dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction is developed for extraction of ten pesticides in complex sample matrices of water and milk. In this regard, effective factors of proposed extraction technique combined with gas chromatography with flame ionization detector were designed, modeled, and optimized using central composite design, multiple linear regression, and Nelder–Mead simplex optimization. Later, univariate calibration model for ten pesticides was developed in concentration range of 0.5–100 ng/mL. Surprisingly, quadratic calibration behavior was observed for some of the pesticides. In this regard, Mandel's test was used for evaluating linearity... 

In this study, organic aerogels were synthesized by the sol-gel polycondensation of mixed cresol with formaldehyde in a slightly basic aqueous solution. Carbon aerogels and xerogels are generated by pyrolysis of organic aerogels. The novel sol-gel-based micro-solid-phase extraction sorbent, resorcinol-formaldehyde xerogel, was employed for preconcentration of some selected herbicides. Three herbicides of the aryloxyphenoxypropionate group, clodinafop-propargyl, haloxyfop-etotyl, and fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, were extracted from aqueous samples by micro-solid-phase extraction and subsequently determined by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. The effect of different parameters influencing the... 

In this paper, we present a simple platform for colorimetric detection of glutathione using gold nanorods (AR ∼ 6.5 ± 0.2) as a plasmonic sensor. The functional mechanism of the sensor is based on shifts of longitudinal plasmon resonance during selective transverse overgrowth induced by preferential binding of glutathione at the nanorod tips. Under the optimum conditions, a calibration curve showed two linear regimes at the range of 50 nM to 20 μM of glutathione with a detection limit as low as 40 nM. The nanosensor maintains relatively high selectivity for determination of glutathione in the presence of several other amino acids. However, cysteine at similar concentration levels strongly... 

A reliable, simple, and sensitive fluorescence method was developed for the determination of methyl parathion (MP) in rice using MoS2 quantum dots (QDs). Rapid hydrolysis of MP under alkaline conditions, and thus the formation of p-nitrophenol (p-NP) can be used for MP detection. The functional mechanism of the nanoprobe relies on p-nitrophenol-induced photoluminescence quenching of MoS2 QDs. The high probability of resonance energy transfer (RET) stems from the spectral overlap of MoS2 QD emission spectra and the absorption spectra of p-NP. The high value of the Stern-Volmer constant (KSV = 3.73 × 104 M-1) suggests the efficient quenching of MoS2 QDs by MP in the course of the ET process.... 

Micromodel is small-scale artificial model of porous medium which is known as a novel approach for simulating flow and transport in porous media. For better understanding the effect of fracture geometrical properties on oil recovery efficiency, a series of first contact miscible solvent injection process were conducted on horizontal glass micromodels at several fixed flow rate conditions. The micromodels were initially saturated with the heavy crude oil. The produced oil as a function of injected volume of solvents was measured using image analysis of the provided pictures. The concentration calibration curves of solvents in heavy crude oil were used for evaluating the solvents... 

Sulfur compounds are essential for many industries and organisms; however, they cause serious respiratory problems in human beings. Therefore, determination of sulfur concentration is of paramount importance. The research approach in the field of detecting contaminants has led to smaller systems that provide faster and more effective ways for diagnosis purposes. In this study, a novel portable amperometric graphene oxide–protein biosensor platform is investigated. The main characteristic of this structure is the implementation of a microfluidic configuration. With albumin metalloprotein as the biorecognition element, graphene oxide was synthesized and characterized by transmission electron... 

A sensitive glutamate biosensor is prepared based on glutamate dehydrogenase/vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (GLDH, VACNTs). Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were grown on a silicon substrate by direct current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (DC-PECVD) method. The electrochemical behavior of the synthesized VACNTs was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic methods. Glutamate dehydrogenase covalently attached on tip of VACNTs. The electrochemical performance of the electrode for detection of glutamate was investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. Differential pulse voltammetric determinations of glutamate are performed... 

Design and operation of three different optical designs based on the light intensity modulation for investigation of the humidity effects on the air index of refraction are described. The measurement variable is the transmitted power, which depends on the refractive index of the medium in the path of a fiber-to-fiber optical design. Three different probes (probe #1, #2, and #3) are tested in which probe #1 and probe #2 can also check the presence of water or any other transparent liquid in the gap between the two axial fibers. Performances of the new systems are tested as a refractive index monitoring mean and experimental results are given. The variations of the modulated powers as... 

A highly sensitive and selective colorimetric method for detection of copper ions, based on anti-aggregation of D-penicillamine (D-PC) induced aggregated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was developed. Copper ions can hinder the aggregation of AuNPs induced by D-PC, through formation of mixed-valence complex with D-PC that is a selective copper chelator. In the presence of a fixed amount of D-PC, the aggregation of AuNPs decreases with increasing concentrations of Cu2+ along with a color change from blue to red in AuNPs solution and an increase in the absorption ratio (A520/A 650). Under the optimum experimental conditions (pH 7, [AuNPs] =3.0 nmol L-1 and [NaCl]=25 mmol L-1), a linear calibration... 

We report herein the development of a highly sensitive colorimetric method for the determination of cysteine and glutathione, based on aggregation of the citrate capped gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). This was exploited from high affinity of low-molecular-weight aminothiols towards the Au NPs surface, which could induce displacement of the citrate shell by the thiolate shell of target molecules, resulting in aggregation of the NPs through intermolecular electrostatic interaction or hydrogen-bonding. As a result of aggregation, which can be affected by the ionic strength, pH and concentration of Au NPs, the plasmon band at around 521 nm decreases gradually, along with formation of a new red... 

In this study, a novel approach for sensitive and extremely selective detection of copper ions has been developed based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between AuNPs as an acceptor and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) as a donor. Initially, the fluorescence of the FITC molecule turns-off due to adsorption to the AuNPs surface. However, the fluorescence of the FITC-AuNPs system was switched to turn-on by adding d-Pencillamine (d-PC) to the solution mixtures as FITC molecules are released upon displacement by d-PC on the NPs surface. The higher affinity of d-PC toward the surface of AuNPs was further evidenced by controlling the fluorescence intensity enhancement of the... 

A sensitive colorimetric method for the detection of ascorbic acid was proposed in this research based on the reduction of silver ions by ascorbic acid in the presence of citrate-stabilized silver seeds, additional trisodium citrate and a polymer such as polyvinylpyrrolidone. The color of the stable sol is controlled by varying the concentration of trisodium citrate (TSC), polyvinylpyrrolidone, silver nitrate and silver seeds. The reduction of Ag + to triangle silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) by ascorbic acid in the presence of trisodium citrate (TSC) and silver seeds produced two very intense surface plasmon resonance peaks of Ag-NPs. The plasmon absorbance of Ag-NPs allows the quantitative...