Sharif Digital Repository

Here, we report 3D hierarchical SnO2 nanowire (NW) core-amorphous silicon shell on free-standing carbon nanotube paper (SnO2@a-Si/CNT paper) as an effective anode for flexible lithium-ion battery (LIB) application. This binder-free electrode exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 3020 mAh g-1 with a large reversible charge capacity of 1250 mAh g-1 at a current density of 250 mA g-1. Compared to other SnO2 NW or its core-shell nanostructured anodes, the fabricated SnO2@a-Si/CNT structure demonstrates an outstanding performance with high mass loading (∼5.9 mg cm-2), high areal capacity (∼5.2 mAh cm-2), and large volumetric capacity (∼1750 mAh cm-3) after 25 cycles. Due to the... 

Unlike bonded retrofit systems, un-bonded systems do not need any surface preparation prior to bond application, which reduces the overall time and cost of a retrofit plan. Because the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) plate in the un-bonded (tendon) systems is not bonded to a metallic substrate, different variants of the retrofit systems can be developed to ease application in the field. This paper presents four different variants of the prestressed un-bonded retrofit (PUR) systems: trapezoidal PUR (TPUR), triangular PUR (TriPUR), Flat PUR (FPUR), and Contact PUR (CPUR) systems. Analytical solutions based on the flexibility approach are developed to predict the behavior of the metallic... 

In this study, the effects of fiber type (i.e., carbon and glass fibers) and intumescent paint on the tensile performance of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets at elevated temperatures are investigated. For this purpose, a series of tensile tests were conducted on the glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP and CFRP) sheets, with and without intumescent fire retardant paint, at different elevated temperatures. The studied temperatures ranged from 25 °C to 600 °C. Scanning electron microscopy was also used to examine the effects of elevated temperatures on FRP sheets and the fire protecting mechanism of the intumescent paint. Based on the test results, the tensile strength of the... 

This paper studies the results of compression diagonal tests conducted on a series of retrofitted and non-retrofitted small-scale masonry walls (which are also known as wallettes). Wallettes with the same characteristics and mechanical properties of large masonry walls were retrofitted by using two arrays of glass fiber reinforcement polymer (GFRP) sheets (grid and diagonal), two arrays of carbon fiber reinforcement polymer (CFRP) sheets (grid and diagonal), and near surface mounted bars (steel and GFRP). FRP sheets were applied to both surfaces of the wallettes, and rebar was mounted onto one of the surfaces in two horizontal and two vertical arrangements. All of the methods significantly... 

A novel electrode consisting of 3D porous nickel‒cobalt‒copper sulfide dendritic structures is synthesized, in which, for the first time ternary Ni–Co–Cu foam is constructed through hydrogen bubble template and followed by sulfidization via a hydrothermal reaction in thiourea. The 3D, porous Ni–Co–Cu dendritic sulfide electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 1203.75 F g−1 (0.963 F cm−2) at current of 1.0 mA and excellent cycling stability, excellent ratability along with high cycle stability. An asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) using dendritic sulfide structures and reduced electro-etched carbon fiber paper (RECF) as the positive and negative electrodes, respectively is developed.... 

The phenolic-based brake friction composites containing 0, 1, 2 and 4 vol% carbon fiber were fabricated in this study. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed the adverse impact of carbon fiber on the thermal stability of the composites under air atmosphere. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) of the uncured samples indicated the positive impact of carbon fiber on the crosslink density of the phenolic resin. Viscoelastic results drawn from the dynamic-mechanical analysis (DMA) suggested that inclusion of carbon fiber increased the storage modulus and decreased the damping factor of the frictional composites. The tribological behavior of the specimens was assessed with a chase type... 

In this research, the mechanical properties of glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars with epoxy resin matrices embedded in concrete were investigated under an extensive range of elevated temperatures (i.e., 25–800 °C). Embedded FRP bars with various bar diameters were studied in order to determine bar diameter influence on the results. In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the experimental results to investigate the contribution of exposure temperature and bar diameter to the tensile behavior of embedded in concrete FRP bars at elevated temperatures. The results show that the tensile strength of embedded FRP bars generally decreases with increasing... 

To investigate the effect of short carbon fibre on the tribological behavior of phenolic resin-based friction materials, a reference friction composite holding various ingredients without short carbon fibre, and three friction composites holding 1, 2 and 4 vol% carbon fibre were formulated. The dynamic-mechanical and thermogravimetric analyses showed the increase of storage modulus and reduction of thermal stability, respectively, with incorporation of carbon fibre into the brake composites. The tribological characterizations revealed that the coefficient of friction (COF) and specific wear rate of the friction composites dropped with addition of carbon fibre into the composites. Carbon... 

Buckling-restrained braces (BRBs) have been spread widely, especially in high seismic hazard zones due to their excellent energy absorption capacity. BRBs are composed of a main load-carrying steel core restrained with other elements mostly made of concrete and steel casing to preserve it from buckling. Although BRBs provide excellent cyclic behavior, a problem is with their heaviness, which leads to difficulties such as installation and transportation. This study presents a numerical and experimental investigation on a BRB with a new proposed restraining system composed of concrete panels confined with partially carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips to reduce the weight of the... 

In this study, zirconia antistatic coatings were synthesized by a simple dip coating sol-gel route on glass substrates, then applied to polymer-based composites to potentially improve their dust or water repellent capabilities. The coating solution contained a precursor (ZrCl4), solvent (isopropanol) and coupling agent. FTIR spectra confirmed ZrO2 and ZrO compounds in both solution and antistatic coating. FE-SEM images indicated ZrO2 fibers’ thickness was controlled by changing ZrCl4 concentration (150 g–15 g ZrCl4/l) or relative humidity (20%–60%) during coating drying. Fibers grew thicker when decreasing the former or increasing the latter. The surface electrical resistivity for all... 

Ammonium polyphosphate (APP) is one of the most widely used halogen-free flame retardant, added in various resins to improve the fire properties, such as flame and smoke spread ratings and LOI, of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. This paper experimentally investigates the effects of using APP, as a fire-retardant filler, on mechanical properties (i.e. ultimate tensile, flexural, and bond strength) of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. Based on two fiber types (i.e. carbon and glass) and three different APP mass fractions in resin (i.e. 0, 20, and 40% of total weight of matrix), six sets of specimens were prepared for each... 

In this study, a numerical study on failure assessment and stress distribution on the adhesive region in a composite T-joint under bending load case is investigated using cohesive zone method (CZM). The Finite Element Model (FEM) has been verified with experimental results. To study the load transfer capability of the T-joint, five different adhesives are considered in the adhesive region and the effect of geometrical parameters such as stringer thickness, corner radius, and adherend thickness as well as micromechanical properties of reinforced fiber composite adherends are investigated. Effective properties of two composite adherends including Carbon-Epoxy (IM7/8552) and Glass-Epoxy... 

Carbon fiber (CF) as a multifunctional material with superb performance in aviation industry has serious drawback such as impedance mismatch which restricted the capability of using it as microwave absorber materials. In this research, a novel hierarchical carbon fiber@La0.7Sr0.3MnO@NiO (CF/LS/N) composite was facilely and successfully synthesized via sol-gel and subsequent hydrothermal reactions. The structural, morphological, magnetic and electromagnetic behavior of the composite were precisely evaluated via XRD, FESEM, XPS, VSM and VNA analysis. According to the systematic evaluation results, the synergistic positive effect of adding NiO nanoparticles is revealed in improving the... 

Following our previous work on morphology, corrosion resistance and thermal properties of unsaturated polyester (UP)/nanoclay composites, the effect of electron beam (EB) irradiation on mechanical properties of UP/nanoclay composites with various nanoclay contents is investigated in this work. Moreover, influence of EB irradiation with doses of 100, 500 and 1000 kGy on tensile properties and hardness of nanocomposite was examined. FTIR spectroscopy was employed to examine the effect of irradiation on chemical structure of polymer. EB irradiation up to 500 kGy led to the improvement of tensile strength and hardness of the samples. The best mechanical properties were observed for the... 

Recently, preparation of lightweight absorbers with high performance capability are urgently needed for practical demanded in order to solve the severe electromagnetic pollution. In the present study, two different composites (Fe3O4/carbon fiber and Fe3O4/rGO) were uniformly incorporated into resin epoxy matrix to obtain single and double layer X-band absorber with 20 wt% filler loading. Each of the composites were prepared via solvothermal process. According to the results, the minimum reflection loss values for each single layer Fe3O4/carbon fiber and Fe3O4/rGO absorber were −15 dB (3 mm thickness and 1.5 GHz bandwidth) and −50 dB (3 mm thickness and 4 GHz bandwidth) respectively. By... 

Interface shear strength between soil and structural materials is dependent on the confining pressure. To increase the confining pressure, different methods of reinforcement and materials, such as carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) can be used. The shear strength of CFRP-improved soil is dependent on the interface properties of the soil and CFRP. The objective of this study is to investigate the interface properties (friction angle and adhesion) of sand and FRP experimentally using the direct shear test apparatus. To increase the surface roughness to improve the interface properties, a layer of sand was placed on saturated carbon fiber during the curing period [spark plasma sintering... 

Miniaturization of electronic devices with portable, flexible and wearable characteristics created a great demand for high-performance microscale energy storage devices with lightweight and flexible properties. Among the energy storage devices, wire-shaped supercapacitors (WSSCs) have recently received tremendous attention due to their tiny volume, wearability, high flexibility and potential applications in the next-generation portable/wearable electronic devices. Herein, we successfully fabricated a porous dendritic Ni-Cu film on Cu wire substrate (CWE) for fabrication of high-performance wire-type supercapacitors. The porous structure with dendritic morphology provides a high surface area,... 

Demand increasing for next generation portable and miniaturized electronics has aroused much interest to explore microscale and lightweight energy storage devices. Herein, we demonstrate successful development of flexible wire-shaped micro-supercapacitors (micro-SCs) based on novel CoNi2S4/E-NZP film@Cu wire electrode. The etched Ni-Zn-P (E-NZP) film was synthesized by directly deposition of NZP film on Cu wire, followed by a chemical etching process. Alkaline etching treatment provides a micro- and mesoporous structure with high surface area and facilitates the penetration of electrolyte ions into the electrode matrix. Then, CoNi2S4 nanosheets as electroactive material are electrochemically... 

Viral diseases have long been among the biggest challenges for healthcare systems around the world. The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an example of how complicated the situation can get if we are not prepared to combat a viral outbreak in time, which brings up the need for quick and affordable biosensing platforms and vast knowledge of potential antiviral effects and drug/gene delivery opportunities. The same challenges have also existed for nonviral immunogenic disorders. Nanomedicine is considered a novel candidate for effectively overcoming these worldwide challenges. Among the versatile nanomaterials commonly used in biomedical applications, graphene has recently... 

Wire-shaped micro-supercapacitors attracted extensive attentions in next-generation portable and wearable electronics, due to advantages of miniature size, lightweight and flexibility. Herein, NiMoO 4 nanorods supported on Ni film coated Cu wire are successfully fabricated thorough direct deposition of Ni film onto Cu wire as the conductive substrate, followed by growth of the NiMoO 4 nanorods on Ni film coated Cu wire substrate by means a hydrothermal annealing process. The prepared 3D, porous electrode demonstrates extremely high areal specific capacitance of 12.03F cm −2 at the current density of 4 mA cm −2 and retained capacitance of 8.23 F cm −2 at a much higher current density of 80...