Sharif Digital Repository

In current study, a meta-analysis approach was used to identify and evaluate the impact of various factors on the performance of integrated systems of anaerobic digestion with microbial electrolysis cell. In this study, related articles on the topic were systematically identified and collected according to the considered criteria, and the effect size that refers to the value of the difference between variables mean (total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) removal rate and CH4 yield) was estimated. According to the meta-analysis, fed-batch operation mode, the range of 20< temperature ≤30 °C, metal cathodes, the range of 500< anode surface area ≤5000 cm2, HRT (hydraulic retention time) >20 days,... 

The present research work aims to employ plasma focus in order to deposit molybdenum (Mo) on the 304 stainless steel substrate. The processing parameters were shot numbers as well as the distance of substrate from the anode tip. Stereo, atom force microscopy (AFM) and field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to study the deposited coatings. Microhardness measurements were also performed on the coatings. Results indicated that the plasma focus can be successfully applied to deposit Mo anode on the stainless steel substrate. The coatings contained discrete pores with sizes varying by processing parameters. The... 

Here we analyze the effect of two relevant aspects related to cell preparation on quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) performance: the architecture of the TiO 2 nanostructured electrode and the growth method of quantum dots (QD). Particular attention is given to the effect on the photovoltage, V oc, since this parameter conveys the main current limitation of QDSCs. We have analyzed electrodes directly sensitized with CdSe QDs grown by chemical bath deposition (CBD) and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). We have carried out a systematic study comprising structural, optical, photophysical and photoelectrochemical characterization in order to correlate the material... 

In this study, the effects of pulse current mode on corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of anodized coatings were explored. Thickness and hardness measurements, polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were employed to take mechanical and corrosion behaviors of the anodized coatings into consideration. Also, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was utilized to characterize the surface morphology of the coatings. It was shown that in short anodizing times, coating thickness is controlled by the heat concentrated on coating. Although at prolonged anodizing times, the coating thickness is affected by average current density. Hardness measurements showed... 

In this research TiO2 nanocrystals with sizes about 11-70 nm were grown by hydrothermal method. The process was performed in basic autoclaving pH in the range of 8.0-12.0. The synthesized anatase phase TiO2 nanocrystals were then applied in the phtoanode of the dye sensitized solar cells. It was shown that the final average size of the nanocrystals was larger when the growth was carried out in higher autoclaving pHs. The photoanodes made of TiO2 nanocrystals prepared in the pHs of 8.0 and 9.0 represented low amounts of dye adsorption and light scattering. The performance of the corresponding dye sensitized solar cells was also not acceptable. Nevertheless, the energy conversion efficiency... 

The main challenges of biological implants are suitable strength, adhesion, biocompatibility and corrosion resistance. This paper discusses fabrication, characterization and electrochemical investigation of anodized Ti6Al4V without and with a hydroxyapatite (HA) layer, HA/TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) and HA/TiO2 nanotubes (HA/anodized). X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize and compare properties of different samples. Dense HA with uniform distribution and 12.8 ± 2 MPa adhesive strength enhanced to 19.2 ± 4 MPa by the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles and enhanced to 23.1 ± 4 MPa by the... 

There are high attractions in the development of conducting polymer (CP) coatings to improve the electrochemical properties and biocompatibility of electrodes in the area of biosensors. A new type of the modified electrodes is prepared in a layer-by-layer process by using multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and poly-pyrrole. In this procedure, the glassy carbon electrode is casted by a drop suspension of MWCNT, which leads to form a thin film of nanotube on its surface. In the second step, electrochemical polymerization of pyrrole in the presence of tiron (used as doping anion) is performed on the surface of the MWCNT pre-coated electrode. The modification procedure led to fabrication of a... 

Here in this research, we report on surface engineering of bulk Cu2O photocathode thorough employing nanostructured materials. Nanorods (NRs) of copper oxide with average lengths of 150 nm have been synthesized by anodization of Cu foil in aqueous KOH electrolyte, followed by annealing treatment. Several heating processes were examined to reach pure Cu2O nanostructures and lastly the moderate annealing procedure at 700 °C under Ar gas flow resulted in pure Cu2O nanostructures, confirmed by XRD analysis. Surface modified nanorod/bulk Cu2O electrode was prepared by spin coating of sediments suspension of anodized drop on bulk Cu2O film fabricated through thermal oxidation method, followed by... 

Different compositions of TiO2–BaTiO3 nanocomposites are synthesized with various weight ratios for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications. TiO2 and BaTiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized by sol-gel and solvothermal methods, respectively and are employed as the photoanode electrodes. BaTiO3 NPs have pure cubic perovskite crystal structure with an average size of 20-40 nm, while TiO2 NPs show pure anatase phase with 15-30 nm size. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) enhancement of the cells is first attained by controlling the thickness of the films for light harvesting improvement. The fabricated DSSC composed of pure BaTiO3 NPs with an optimal thickness of 25 μm shows... 

In this research, facile and low cost synthesis methods, electrodeposition at constant current density and anodization at various applied voltages, were used to produce hierarchical cobalt oxide/hydroxide nanoflakes on top of porous anodized cobalt layer. The maximum electrochemical capacitance of 601 mF cm-2 at scan rate of 2 mV s-1 was achieved for 30 V optimized anodization applied voltage with high stability. Morphology and surface chemical composition were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The size, thickness, and density of nanoflakes, as well as length of the porous anodized Co layer were measured about 460 ± 45 nm,... 

This paper presents solid-state ligand exchange of spin-coated colloidal lead sulfide quantum dot (PbS QD) films by methylammonium iodide (MAI) and integration of them in depleted heterojunction solar (DHS) devices having an antireflecting (AR) nanocone plastic structure. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements determine a shorter lifetime of the charge carries on a semiconductor (TiO2) electron transfer layer for the MAI-passivated QD films as compared with those with long-chain aliphatic or short thiol ligands. Consequently, the DHS device yields improved power conversion efficiency (>125%) relative to oleic-acid-passivated PbS QD films. Using anodized aluminum oxide templates, an... 

We demonstrate for the first time the application of p-NiFe2O4/n-Fe2O3 composite thin films as anode materials for light-assisted electrolysis of water. The p-NiFe2O4/n-Fe2O3 composite thin films were deposited on planar fluorinated tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass as well as on 3D array of nanospike (NSP) substrates. The effect of substrate (planar FTO and 3D-NSP) and percentage change of each component (i.e., NiFe2O4 and Fe2O3) of composite was studied on photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation reaction. This work also includes the performance comparison of p-NiFe2O4/n-Fe2O3 composite (planar and NSP) devices with pure hematite for PEC water oxidation. Overall, the nanostructured... 

Nickel - copper alloy modified glassy carbon electrodes (GC/NiCu) prepared by galvanostatic deposition were used for the electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose in alkaline solutions. The electro-oxidation of glucose in a 1 M NaOH solution at different concentration of glucose was studied by the method of ac-impedance spectroscopy. The impedance behavior show different patterns, capacitive, and inductive loops and negative resistances, at different applied anodic potential. The influence of the electrode potential on the impedance pattern is studied and a quantitative explanation for the impedance behavior of glucose oxidation is put forward by a proposed mathematical model. At potentials... 

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in synthesizing electrodes used in zinc electrowinning, increasing active surface area, decreasing specific energy consumption, and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotential. In this study, modified nanocomposite anodes were synthesized by applying pulsed and constant direct current electrodeposition to improve the catalytic activity of the electrodes toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and reduce energy consumption in zinc electrowinning. By decreasing particle size, the active surface area of PbO2-RuO2 nano-mixed composite electrode was 2.88 and 14.22 times greater than PbO2-RuO2 microcomposite and pure PbO2 electrodes, respectively.... 

Here, a solution combustion method was employed to construct a photoanode based on bismuth vanadate (BV) composition. To curtail the fast charge recombination, phosphorus-doped g-C3N4 nanosheets (PCNS) in combination with BV are considered a potential approach. The prepared solution combustion facilitated the formation of a BiVO4-PCNS (BV-PCNS) hybrid photoanode with worm-like morphology with a simple setup. The weight ratio of PCNS/BiVO4 and the loading volume/cm2 were optimized to determine the most efficient photoanode. The highest photocurrent density of 0.5 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) under 1 sun illumination was achieved for the hybrid nanostructure at 2 wt... 

Recently, photoelectrochemical conversion (PEC) of water into fuel is attracting great attention of researchers due to its outstanding benefits. Herein, a systematic study on PEC of water using CuFe2O4/ α-Fe2O3 composite thin films is presented. CuFe2O4/ α-Fe2O3 composite thin films were deposited on two different substrates; (1) planner FTO glass and (2) 3-dimensional nanospike (NSP). The films on both substrates were characterized and tested as anode material for photoelectrochemical water splitting reaction. During PEC studies, it was observed that the ratio between two components of composite is crucial and highest PEC activity results were achieved by 1:1 component ratio (CF-1) of... 

The objective of the work ahead is presentation of a new carbon paste electrode (CPE) modified by TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) and 1,2-bis-[o-aminophenyl thio] ethane (APTE) ligand as a selective cation receptor for determination of the Cd (II) ions using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). The electrode shows an excellent tendency to Cd (II) ions in presence of some interfering species. Under the optimum conditions, a linear calibration curve was obtained in the concentration range of 2.9 nM to 4.6 μM with a correlation coefficient of 0.9969 in the anodic potential of 0.54 (V vs. Ag/AgCl). The metal detection limit was 2.0 nM after 10 min preconcentration (S/N = 3). The... 

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... 

Titanium anodes coated with noble metal oxides are widely used in chlorate industry. In fact, these anodes are dimensionally stable. In this article, the electrochemical characteristics of the ternary oxide coating created by sol-gel on titanium, which consisted of Ti, Ru and Ir, were investigated in the number of different layers. The electrochemical properties of anodes, morphology of samples, and phase analysis were investigated respectively by cyclic voltammetry and polarization measurements, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and XRD. The result indicated that the application of the more layer number increases the rate of chlorine evolution. Also, The morphology of the... 

The wellhead flow control valve bodies which are the focal point of this failure case study were installed in some of the upstream facilities of Khangiran's sour gas wells. These valve bodies have been operating satisfactorily for 3 years in wet H2S environment before some pits and cracks were detected in all of them during the periodical technical inspections. One failed valve body was investigated by chemical and microstructural analytical techniques to find out the failure cause and provide preventive measures. The valve body alloy was A216-WCC cast carbon steel. During investigation many cracks were observed on the inner surface of the valve body grown from the surface pits. The results...