Sharif Digital Repository

The conductive CuCo2O4 spinel coating is applied on the surface of the AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel by the dip-coating sol-gel process and it is evaluated in terms of the microstructure, oxidation resistance and electrical conductivity. The results show that the CuCO2O 4 coating forms a double-layer scale consisting of a Cr, Fe-rich subscale and Cu-Co spinel top layer after 500 h in air at 800 °C. This scale is protective, acts as an effective barrier against Cr migration into the outer oxide layer and alleviates the cathode Cr-poisoning. The oxidation resistance is significantly enhanced by the protective coating with a parabolic rate constant of 5.8 × 10-13 gr2 cm-4 s -1, meanwhile... 

The aim of the present study was to experimentally investigate the interaction between a low replacement ratio of different nano-particles (SiO2, Al2O3, clay, and CaCO3) and aminosilane in the matrices of cement paste and mortar. Results showed that the optimum content of aminosilane for improving the 28-day compressive strength of cement mortar was 0.75% (by weight of the total binder). The utilization of nano-SiO2 and nano-clay particles improved the strengths of the cement mortar containing hybrid systems of nano-particles/aminosilane at early (7 days) and middle curing ages (28 and 91 days). The 28-day compressive strength enhancement of cement mortar with hybrid systems of nano-SiO... 

An effective and self-organized differentiation of human neural stem cells (hNSCs) into neurons was developed by the pulsed laser stimulation of the cells on graphene films (prepared by drop-casting a GO suspension onto quartz substrates). The effects of graphene oxide (GO) and hydrazine-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets on the proliferation of hNSCs were examined. The higher proliferation of the cells on the GO was assigned to its better hydrophilicity. On the other hand, the rGO sheets, which have significantly better electrical conductivity than GO, exhibited more differentiation of the cells into neurons. The pulsed laser stimulation not only resulted in an accelerated differentiation... 

This work, which is a part of our ongoing studies on developing conductive scaffolds for nerve tissue engineering, reports synthesis of highly conductive binary-doped polyaniline nanoparticles and polyaniline/graphene nanocomposites. The samples were synthesized through chemical oxidation of aniline via in situ emulsion polymerization method in presence of hydrochloric acid and sodium dodecyl sulfate. Graphene nanosheets were also prepared via modified Hummer's method followed by chemical reduction using hydrazine monohydrate. Electrical conductivity measurements using a standard four-point probe technique with FTIR and UV-vis studies revealed that conductive binary-doped emeraldine salt... 

CdS/TiO2/graphene (CTG) nanocomposite thin films were synthesized by a facile production route. The TiO2/graphene (TG) nanocomposite was initially fabricated by sol-gel method in such a way that TiO2 nanoparticles loaded on graphene oxide (GO) sheet via photocatalytic process. Then, CdS nanoparticles were deposited on the TG thin film by successive ion layer adsorption and reaction process (SILAR) approach. Based on atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses, the TG thin film possessed a larger surface area as compared with the pure TiO2 thin film due to presence of graphene sheet. UV/visible spectroscopy exhibited... 

Asian red ginseng was used for green reduction of chemically exfoliated graphene oxide (GO) into reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The reduction level and electrical conductivity of the ginseng-rGO sheets were comparable to those of hydrazine-rGO ones. Reduction by ginseng resulted in repairing the sp 2 graphitic structure of the rGO, while hydrazine-rGO showed more defects and/or smaller aromatic domains. The ginseng-rGO sheets presented a better stability against aggregation than the hydrazine-rGO ones in an aqueous suspension. Whilst the hydrophobic hydrazine-rGO films exhibited no toxicity against human neural stem cells (hNSCs), the hydrophilic GO and ginseng-rGO films (as more... 

We report improved performance of Li-ion polymer batteries through advanced gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs). Compared to solid and liquid electrolytes, GPEs are advantageous as they can be fabricated in different shapes and geometries; also ionic properties are significantly superior to that of solid and liquid electrolytes. We have synthetized GPE in form of membranes by trapping ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate in a composite of polyvinylidene fluoride and N-methylpyrrolidinore. By applying phase-transfer method, we synthetized membranes with micro-pores, which led to higher ionic conductivity. The proposed membrane is to be modified further to have higher capacity, stronger... 

This paper investigates the effects of acid normality (0.01-6 N HCl) and combustion retention time (0.25- 16 hours) on the pozzolanic properties of pre-combustion acid-treated rice husk ash. The pozzolanic reactivity was quantified by adding ground ash to saturated Ca(OH)2 solutions and monitoring the time-dependent electrical conductivity and pH of the solutions. Also, the strength activity of ashes from different processes was measured by testing the compressive strength of mortars. It was observed that acid treatment results in ashes with higher SiO2 content, lower alkali and unburned carbon content, better grindability, and smaller particle size, in comparison with ash from non-acid... 

Lanthanum chromite coating occupies a noticeable position as a ceramic coating on metallic interconnects in solid oxide fuel cells because of its excellent electrical conductivity, high oxidation resistance and desirable chemical stability in both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres. In the present work, a sol-gel process based on the dip-coating technique was used to prepare dense and uniform coatings on metallic alloy for interconnect application (AISI 430 type). The effect of strontium and calcium doping into lanthanum chromite structure on electrical conductivity and oxidation behavior of the coated sample has been investigated. The oxidation behavior was evaluated by cyclic oxidation... 

We study numerically the heat transfer of steady laminar flow in a square cavity filled with electrically conducting fluids, in the presence of an external uniform magnetic field. Imposing a large temperature gradient between two opposite vertical walls, there are substantial temperature and density variations in the domain. The fluid is treated as an ideal gas. Indeed, high temperature gradient thermo-buoyant cavity flows result in natural convection flow domains with high Rayleigh number. To implement the temperature variation effect, the fluid properties, including the conductivity and viscosity coefficients, are considered to vary with temperature in accordance to the Sutherland's law.... 

MnCo oxide spinels have received recent interest as surface coatings on ferritic stainless steel (FSS) interconnects in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks, where they provide relatively stable electrical conductivity and reduced Cr volatility compared to uncoated FSS interconnects. In this study, sol-gel deposited MnCo surface coatings on FSS, with post-deposition treatments, were investigated in laboratory air at up to 750°C for up to 750h. The protective coating formed and evolved isomorphic crystallites, (Mn,Co,Fe,Cr)3O4, following fifteen (15) fifty hour (50h) cycles in air up to 750°C. Relative to the surface oxide on the uncoated FSS, the coating was dense, crack-free and exhibited... 

Conductive polymers (CPs) are classified as materials which exhibit highly reversible redox behavior and the unusual combined properties of metal and plastics. CPs, due to their multifunctionality, ease of synthesis and their stability, have attracted more attentions in different fields of research, including sample preparation. CPs along with several commercial hydrophilic sorbents, are alternative to the commercially available hydrophobic sorbents which despite their high specific surface areas, have poor interactions and retentions in the extraction of polar compounds. This review covers a general overview regarding the recent progress and new applications of CPs toward their synthesis... 

In this study electrical properties of different water liquids at frequency range of 100-2000 Hz are investigated by using the short invasive and non-invasive cylindrical capacitive sensors (CCSs). Operation of the capacitance measurement module for such probes is based on the auto balancing bridge method. Comparison of the measured capacitances and measured resistances for different water liquids shows decrease by increasing the frequency. In another study the dielectric constant of distilled water, mineral water, tap water and salt water are measured. The effects of the frequency on the resistivity, permittivity and conductance of the different water liquids are also investigated  

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  

In this paper, a novel structure for MOSFET like CNTFETs (MOSCNTs) is proposed, combining the advantages of both high and low dielectrics to improve output characteristics. In this structure, the gate dielectric at the drain side is selected from a material with low dielectric constant to form smaller capacitances, while a material with high dielectric constant is selected at the source side to improve on current and reduce leakage current. The new structure is simulated based on the Schrödinger-Poisson formulation. Obtained results show that the proposed configuration has lower off and higher on current in comparison with low-k MOSCNTs. Also, using a two-dimensional model, a wide range of... 

A large-signal analysis of sub-harmonic parametric oscillations in Power Amplifiers (PAs) is presented in this paper. Simplified models for current-voltage and channel charge characteristics of short-channel pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistors (pHEMTs) are adopted to investigate the effects of the device transconductance and gate-source capacitance nonlinearities on the amplifier stability. A 5-W Ku-band PA is designed to demonstrate the application of the presented analysis. MMIC PA is implemented in a 0.25-μm GaAs pHEMT process. According to the measurements, the PA provides 37.5 dBm (5.6 W) of output power, 36% of Power Added Efficiency (PAE), and small-signal gain of 18 dB... 

In this work, we used λ-DNA to produce metallic DNA samples and we investigated the stabilization time of their impedances. This is in order to show that the DNA molecules can possibly be utilized as a frame for assembling the nanocircuits and as an electronic element as well, in nanoelectric devices. It has been shown that metallic DNA has lower stabilization time than natural DNA. As expected, it is shown that making the bundled DNA oriented, impacts their impedance stabilization. In order to find the characteristic impedance of the DNA molecules under direct current, we designed and made patterned electrodes to make electrical connections between the DNAs and the used current source. The... 

In this investigation, application of the least square support vector machine (LSSVM) for modeling of the electrical resistivity of the magnetic Zn-Mn-S nanocrystalline semiconductor films has been described. The model has been trained based on the experimental data obtained from a published work by Sreekantha Reddy et al. The model inputs are temperature and variations in the concentrations of Zn, Mn. The results indicate that LSSVM is able to be used for accurate prediction of the electrical resistivity of the Zn-Mn-S nanocrystalline semiconductor films  

The influence of variable fluid properties on mixed electroosmotic and pressure driven flow of non-Newtonian fluids is investigated in this paper. The non-linear coupled energy and momentum equations are solved by means of an iterative numerical approach. The results reveal that the temperature dependent effects only become significant at very high values of the Debye-Hückel parameter in case of combined electroosmotic and pressure driven flow and could safely be neglected in other cases. It is observed that the physical properties variation lead to a higher mean velocity in case of pressure assisted flow and a lower mean velocity in case of pressure opposed flow. Furthermore, the... 

The electronic conductor-insulator transition in Ca-doped BiFeO 3 films grown by pulsed-laser deposition technique has been investigated. Nature of the transition is resolved to be Mott type through the control of band-filling. Calcium resolved to have colossal effect on enhancing the electrical conductivity of BiFeO 3, but it did not affect band gap of the mother phase perceptibly. UV-visible study yielded band gap of 2.72-2.81 eV (at 300 K) for different concentrations of calcium. Both UV-visible and photoluminescence spectra revealed sub-band gap transitions at 2.17 and 2.38 eV, of which the latter might be ascribed to the oxygen vacancies