Sharif Digital Repository

Preparation of the defective TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) have been recently in particular interest for its outstanding applications in visible-light active photocatalysis. In order to make TiO2 visible-light absorber, optical band gap should be modified especially via introducing structural defects like oxygen vacancies as an effective pathway. In this research, we prepared defective rutile TiO2 NPs with highly efficient photocatalytic activity under visible light. The NPs were synthesized by electric arc discharge in water as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly method with capability of defect formation which followed by heat treatment. The photocatalytic activity improvement... 

The search for cathode materials with fast oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic activities and high ionic conductivity is the key obstacle to SOFCs commercialization and its operation at low temperatures. In order to search for a cathode with enhanced catalytic functionality, herein we report a single-phase CoFe2O4 (CFO) and CoGd0.2Fe1.80O4 (CGFO), which can be employed as an active cathode to improve electrocatalytic ORR functionalities at low temperature. It is found that CGFO having enriched oxygen vacancies exhibits the least polarization resistance (RP) of 0.42 Ωcm2 compared to the pure CFO which shows polarization resistance of 0.56 Ω cm2 under H2/air conditions. Furthermore,... 

The visible band (band A) of photoluminescence spectra of high-purity synthesized diamond is analyzed by the deconvolution technique. A set of eight lines with distinct peak energies are found. The peak energy and the width of these lines were either constant or varied very slightly with temperature. The amplitude of the lines are significantly temperature dependent. The closeness of the temperature at which the amplitudes of these lines reach their minimum to the temperature at which the free-exiton emission is maximum, is an indication of the competition between these two effects  

The formation and diffusion of a vacancy in a silver nanocluster are studied via a combination of first-principles and statistical mechanics simulations. A 38-atom truncated-octahedral (TO) arrangement and its homologue with 37 Ag atoms and one vacancy are considered, and density-functional calculations are performed to derive the energies of the local minima and the energy barriers connecting them. These data are then used as an input for a study of the system dynamics via a kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm, evaluating site occupancies, diffusion coefficient and equilibration time. It is found that vacancy formation and diffusion represents a viable path for atom-atom exchange in these... 

In this study a low-width MoS2 ribbon has been used for probing the electronic structure and local magnetic moment near vacancies. A theoretical study with the full-potential Density Functional Theory (DFT) approach (Wien2K code) have shown that when the dimension of MoS2 is reduced from 2-D to 1-D the nonmagnetic semi-conductor MoS2 becomes a magnetic conductor. Our study has shown that a vacancy on the S-edge with 50% coverage intensifies the magnetization of the edge of the MoS2 nanoribbon but such a vacancy on S-edge with 100% coverage causes this magnetic property to disappear. It is concluded that in both of them, there are positive or negative strong gradients of local magnetic moment... 

A novel method of oxide semiconductor nanoparticle synthesis is proposed based on high-voltage, high-current electrical switching discharge (HVHC-ESD). Through a subsecond discharge in the HVHC-ESD method, we successfully synthesized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods. Crystallography and optical and electrical analyses approve the high crystal-quality and outstanding optoelectronic characteristics of our synthesized ZnO. The HVHC-ESD method enables the synthesis of ZnO nanorods with ultraviolet (UV) and visible emissions. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our prepared materials, we also fabricated two UV photodetectors based on the ZnO nanorods synthesized using the subsecond HVHC-ESD method. The... 

We compare and contrast the physisorption behavior of imidazolium and butyltrimethylammonium based ionic liquids (ILs) on mono-vacant nitrogen and boron defective hexagonal boron nitride nanoflakes (h-BNNF) using M06-2X/cc-pVDZ level of theory. The presence of defects on the nanoflakes results in an increase in IL binding energy by ~ 1–27 kcal/mol partly due to the lowering of the energy band in the defective nanoflakes. Imidazolium based ILs adsorb energetically more favorably on h-BNNF-VB than on h-BNNF-VN while butyltrimethylammonium based ILs prefer to adsorb on h-BNNF-VN. Upon adsorption of imidazolium ILs on the nanoflakes, an increase in both HOMO and LUMO orbital energies is observed... 

Using the first-principles procedure of density-functional-theory within tight-binding approximation and nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, this paper reports on the impact of vacancy defects on the structural, electronic and transport properties of hydrogen-passivated graphene atomic sheet. After the introduction of vacancy defects in graphene atomic sheet passivated with hydrogen atoms, apart from increase in band gap, a suppression is noted in the intensity of transmission channels and density of states arising from the long array deformations of the graphene sheet and a corresponding shift of the Fermi level. This in turn decreases the conductance of the defected graphene atomic... 

Titania thin film system containing noble metallic nanoparticles such as Au, Ag, and Cu have been prepared by utilizing radio frequency reactive magnetron cosputtering method. The structural and morphological properties of the thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Surface chemical composition of the films was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Optical properties of the TiO 2 annealed films containing Au, Ag, and Cu metallic nanoparticles were investigated by UV-visible spectrophotometry showing surface plasmon resonance of the metals. The photocatalytic activity of all synthesized samples annealed at 600 °C in an Ar +... 

Novel ZnO-carbon and ZnO nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning of polymer precursor followed by subsequent annealing in nitrogen and air, respectively. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated the smooth and beadless nanofibers with wurtzite crystal structure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed the presence of oxygen vacancies (VO) and chemisorbed O2 on the surface of the samples. Band gap narrowing of the ZnO-carbon nanofibers in comparison to ZnO were measured by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). Photo-degradation of azo dye under the UV and visible light was evaluated and ZnO-carbon showed an enhancement in... 

A new model to calculate electronic states of the diamond vacancies has been developed using many body techniques. This model is based on physical assumptions of previous molecular models but does not use configuration interaction. Present model allows an accurate and unified treatment of electronic levels and related eigen functions for diamond vacancies, in addition to transition energies of the first dipole-allowed transitions in the neutral (V0) and negatively charged (V-) vacancies, GR1 and ND1 band. For the first time, we calculated their optical transition intensities. For obtaining these results, we solved a generalized form of the Hubbard Hamiltonian, which consists of all... 

Effects of introducing two monovacancies in bilayer graphene are investigated by using spin-polarized density functional theory. Each layer of bilayer graphene has a monovacancy. Two different classifications are studied, namely, AA and AB. In AA category, vacancies in upper layer and lower layer are chosen from the same sublattices (A or B). However, in AB category, vacancies are selected from the different sublattices (A and B). Two different structures of every classification are examined in order to investigate the effects of two monovacancies on structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of bilayer graphene. Structural optimization reveals that introducing a monovacancy in every... 

Carbon nanotubes are widely used in the design of nanosensors and actuators. Any defect in the manufactured nanotube plays an important role in the natural frequencies of these structures. In this paper, the effect of vacancy defects on the vibration of carbon nanotubes is investigated by using an atomistic modeling technique, called the molecular structural mechanics method. Vibration analysis is performed for armchair and zigzag nanotubes with cantilever boundary condition. The shift of the principal frequency of the nanotube with vacancy defect at different locations on the length is plotted. The results indicate that the frequency of the defective nanotube can be larger or smaller or... 

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising candidates for high-resolution mass nanosensors owing to their unique vibrational behavior. The structural characteristic (e.g. defect type and density) and working temperature have a significant effect on the natural frequency of CNT-based sensors. Herein, a stochastic approach based on novel finite element and molecular mechanics simulations is implemented to model the effect of temperature and structural characteristics of single-wall CNTs including defects (vacancy defect with different densities) and chirality (zigzag and armchair) on their vibrational behavior. The results show that the vacancy defects exert a significant deterioration of the... 

In the present work, characterization of the surface trenches and vacancies with Amplitude Modulation AFM (AM-AFM) using Molecular Dynamics (MD) is simulated and the effects of the tip shape on the resulting images are investigated. The simulated system includes a recently developed gold coated AFM probe which interacts with a sample including a surface trench or a single-atom vacancy. In order to examine the behavior of the above system, including different transition metals, a Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation with Sutton-Chen (SC) interatomic potential is used. Special attention is dedicated to the study of tip geometry effects such as the tip apex radius, the tip cone angle, the probe... 

The energetics and kinetic energy barriers of vacancy/atom exchange in a 37-atom truncated octahedron Ag-Pt binary cluster in the Ag-rich range of compositions are investigated via a first-principles atomistic approach. The energy of the local minima obtained considering various distributions of a single vacancy and a few Pt atoms within the cluster and the energy barriers connecting them are evaluated using accurate density-functional calculations. The effects of the simultaneous presence of a vacancy and Pt atoms are found to be simply additive when their distances are larger than first-neighbors, whereas when they can be stabilizing at low Pt content due to the release of strain by the... 

Graphene nanoribbon field effect transistors are promising devices for beyond-CMOS nanoelectronics. Graphene is a semiconductor material with zero bandgap and its bandgap must be changed. One of the opening bandgap methods is using graphene nanoribbons. By applying a defect, there is more increase on band gap of monolayer armchair graphene nanoribbon field effect transistor. So, by applying more than one defect, we can reach to much more increase in bandgap of graphene nanoribbon field effect transistors (GNRFET). In this paper, double-gated monolayer armchair graphene nanoribbon field effect transistors (GNRFET) with one single vacancy (1SV) defect (so-called 1SVGNRFET)are simulated and...