Sharif Digital Repository

Highly stable, water-based barium titanate (BaTiO3) sols were developed by a low cost and straightforward sol-gel process. Nanocrystalline barium titanate thin films and powders with various Ba:Ti atomic ratios were produced from the aqueous sols. The prepared sols had a narrow particle size distribution in the range 21-23 nm and they were stable over 5 months. X-ray diffraction pattern revealed that powders contained mixture of hexagonal- or perovskite-BaTiO3 as well as a trace of Ba2Ti 13O22 and Ba4Ti2O27 phases, depending on annealing temperature and Ba:Ti atomic ratio. Highly pure barium titanate with cubic perovskite structure achieved with Ba:Ti = 50:50 atomic ratio at the high... 

In this investigation, the effect of annealing temperature and concentration of gold nanoparticles on the photoelectrochemical properties of sol-gel deposited Au : TiO2 nanocomposite thin films is studied. Various gold concentrations have been added to the TiO2 thin films and their properties are compared. All the deposited samples are annealed at different temperatures. The optical density spectra of the films show the formation of gold nanoparticles in the films. The optical bandgap energy of the Au : TiO2 films decreases with increasing Au concentration. The crystalline structure of the nanocomposite films is studied by x-ray diffractometry indicating the formation of gold nanocrystals in... 

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  

TiO2 and transition metal (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol–gel method using 2-hydroxylethylammonium formate as an ionic liquid. All the prepared samples were calcined at 500 °C and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area determination, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The studies revealed that transition metal (TM) doped nanoparticles have smaller crystalline size and higher surface area than pure TiO2. Dopant ions in the TiO2 structure caused significant absorption shift into the visible region. The results of... 

TiO2 and transition metal (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol-gel method using 2-hydroxylethylammonium formate as an ionic liquid. All the prepared samples were calcined at 500 °C and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area determination, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The studies revealed that transition metal (TM) doped nanoparticles have smaller crystalline size and higher surface area than pure TiO2. Dopant ions in the TiO2 structure caused significant absorption shift into the visible region. The results of... 

In this study, the effects of TiO2 addition on the physical and photoelectrochemical properties of ZnO thin films have been investigated. The (TiO2)x-(ZnO)1-x nanocomposite thin films were dip-coated on both glass and indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated conducting glass substrates with various values of x, specifically 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5. Optical properties of the samples were studied by UV-vis spectrophotometry in the range of 300-1100 nm. The optical spectra of the nanocomposite thin films showed high transparency in the visible region. The optical bandgap energy of the (TiO2)x-(ZnO)1-x films increased slightly with increasing values of x. The crystalline structure of the nanocomposite... 

Nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys have been widely used as implant materials, due to their superior shape memory properties and similar mechanical behavior to bone tissue. The presence of nickel on the surface of nickel-titanium alloy and release of this ion in the body environment will result in some allergic reactions. In current study, we used shot pinning process to produce nanocrystalline nickel-titanium alloy with increased corrosion resistance. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and atomic force microscopy were employed to investigate the surface features of samples. The quantitative chemical analysis of NiTi and modified... 

WO3-SiO2 compound thin films were deposited on glass substrates using the sol-gel method, and then all the samples were dried at 100 °C and annealed at 400 °C in air. The effect of WO3 concentration on the hydrophilicity of WO3-SiO2 compound films was studied for the first time and it was shown that the films containing 85 mol% of the concentration possessed a superhydrophilic surface without UV or visible irradiation. Optical properties of the films such as transmittance, reflectance and bandgap energy were investigated using a UV-visible spectrophotometer. According to atomic force microscopy, the surface ratio was maximized in 85 mol% concentration of WO3 similar to hydrophilicity.... 

Titanium dioxide is a cheap, chemically stable and non-toxic material. However its photocatalytic properties are unstable and it is a modest semiconductor and a mediocre insulator. For several applications it would be interesting to make it either more insulating or more conducting. The goal of this work was to modify the photocatalytic properties of nano-crystalline TiO2 powders by wet chemical routes and hydrothermal methods to understand the mechanism leading to these modifications The principal factors that influence the photocatalytic properties are on the one hand the concentration and nature of the chemical and physical conditions in TiO2, and on the other hand the morphology of the... 

Various compositions of maleated ethylene-propylene-rubber (EPR-g-MA) toughened polyamide 6 without and with short glass fiber, i.e. 5-20 wt.% rubber and 5-20 wt.% fiber, are prepared using an industrial twin-screw extruder at different levels of feed rate (100-250 kg/h), screw speed (200-450 rpm) and barrel temperature (230-260 °C). Trial runs designed based on the Taguchi's orthogonal arrays are subjected to tensile, impact, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy tests; and the results are used to perform the analysis of variance (ANOVA). It is shown that the rubber particle size decreases significantly by increasing the rubber content for the unreinforced blend. The... 

A sonochemistry-based synthesis method was used to produce nanocrystalline nickel oxide powder with ∼20 nm average crystallite diameter from Ni(OH)2 precursor. Ultrasound waves were applied to the primary solution to intensify the Ni(OH)2 precipitation. Dried precipitates were calcined at 320 °C to form nanocrystalline NiO particles. The morphology of the produced powder was characterized by transmission electron microscopy. Using sonochemical waves resulted in lowering of the size of the nickel oxide crystallites. FT-IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction revealed high purity well-crystallized structure of the synthesized powder. Photoluminescence spectroscopy confirmed production of a wide... 

Thorium dioxide (thoria) nano-particle was synthesized by employing supercritical water (SCW) as an excellent reaction environment for hydrothermal crystallization of metal oxide particles. This method is ideal for production of ultrafine powder having controlled stoichiometry, high quality, purity and crystallinity. The nano-crystalline thoria was prepared in a stainless steel (316 L) autoclave, fed with an aqueous solution of Th(NO 3) 4.5H 2O as a reactant and took place under SCW condition up to 450 °C for 45 min. The product was recovered and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermal Gravimetry Analysis (TG/DTA) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area analysis. The... 

Nanocrystalline TiO2-AgO thin films and powders were prepared by an aqueous particulate sol-gel route at the low temperature of 573 K (300 °C). Titanium tetraisopropoxide and silver nitrate were used as precursors, hydroxypropyl cellulose was used as a polymeric fugitive agent in order to increase the specific surface area. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that the phase composition of the mixed oxide depends upon the annealing temperature, being a mixture of TiO2 and AgO in the range 573 K to 773 K (300 °C to 500 °C) and a mixture of TiO2, AgO, Ag2O at 973 K (700 °C). Furthermore, one of the smallest crystallite sizes was obtained for TiO... 

The nitrate-citrate gels exhibit auto-catalytic behavior, which can be used to synthesize the nanocrystalline YIG powders. In this study yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12) nanocrystalline powders were prepared by a sol-gel auto-combustion process. The influence of pH value of the precursor solution on the combustion behavior and the garnet phase formation of synthesized powders were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal analysis (DTA/TGA), infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction technique (XRD). The results show that with increasing pH value, the combustion rate increases. The as-burnt powder prepared with pH 1 yielded a single phase YIG after calcination at 800... 

Pechini process was used for preparation of three kinds of nanocrystalline powders of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ): doped with 1.5 mol% nickel oxide, doped with 15 mol% ceria, and doped with 1.5 mol% nickel oxide plus 15 mol% ceria. Zirconium chloride, yttrium nitrate, cerium nitrate, nickel nitrate, citric acid and ethylene glycol were polymerized at 80 °C to produce a gel. XRD, SEM and TEM analyses were used to investigate the crystalline phases and microstructures of obtained compounds. The results of XRD revealed the formation of nanocrystalline powder at 900 °C. Morphology of the powder calcined at 900 °C, examined with a scanning electron microscope, showed that the presence of...