Sharif Digital Repository

Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) at atmospheric pressure, using TiCl 4 as a precursor, was used to grow nanostructured TiO2 films on glass substrates. At relatively low temperatures (∼245 °C) and using relatively high reactant concentrations, different nano-morphologies of TiO2 were formed simultaneously, such as spheres, nanowires and mesoporous structures. The TiO2 spheres were successfully applied as light-scattering particles in dye-sensitized solar cells, either by direct deposition onto electrodes in the reactor, or by preparation of a printing paste from the deposited particles. For dye-sensitized solar cells using the organic dye D35 as sensitizer and a cobalt-complex based redox... 

Tubular ceramic membranes were synthesized by depositing a dense layer of silica-alumina on top of a multilayer substrate using co-current chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The multilayer substrate was prepared by coating with a series of bohemite sols with certain particle sizes. Cross-sectional and surface images obtained from high resolution FESEM showed that the intermediate layer had a thickness of about 1μm and the top selective layer was uniform and dense with a thickness of less than 100nm. Permeance tests, which were carried out with H 2, CO 2, N 2 and CH 4 at a high temperature range of 923-1073K, indicated that gas permeation took place via different mechanisms through... 

Airflow simulation of the whole respiratory system is still unfeasible due to the geometrical complexity of the lung airways and the diversity of the length scales involved in the problem. Even the new CT imaging system is not capable of providing accurate 3D geometries for smaller tubes, and a complete 3D simulation is impeded by the limited computational resources available. The aim of this study is to develop a fully coupled 3D-1D model to make accurate prediction of airflow and particle deposition in the whole respiratory track, with reasonable computational cost and efficiency. In the new proposed method, the respiratory tree is divided into three parts to be dealt with using different... 

Ni/SiC nanocomposite coatings were electrodeposited using Watts type bath and different SiC particle size. The electrodeposition behavior of Ni/SiC nanoelectrocomposites was studied using electrochemical techniques such as impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and voltammetry. In this study it was shown that SiC particles modify the EIS diagram and voltammograms as well as surface morphology of electrodeposited layers. Experimental results showed that SiC particles not only affect the formation of intermediate species and decrease charge transfer resistance but also increase the nucleation sites for nickel electrodeposition and thus affect the microstructure of electrodeposited Ni/SiC nanocomposites.... 

Present research represents the application of artificial neural networks to predict the chemical composition of electrodeposited Ni-Mo thin films. Artificial neural networks commonly are utilized as a prediction tools so that these networks could approximately find kind of logic relationships between inputs and target; they fitted appropriate coefficient and weighting factors to the inputs which are proportional to their importance. In order to evaluate the model developed, experimental results were compared with the predicted ones. However, more data are required to train more reliable prediction models, presents study revealed an acceptable error less than 1% between predicted values and... 

Nickel-modified glassy carbon electrode (GC/Ni) prepared by galvanostatic deposition was used for the electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose in alkaline solutions where different electrochemical methods were employed. In cyclic voltammetry studies, in the presence of glucose an increase in the peak current of the oxidation of nickel hydroxide is followed by a decrease in the corresponding cathodic current. This suggests that the oxidation of glucose is being catalyzed through mediated electron transfer across the nickel hydroxide layer comprising nickel ions of various valence states. Under the chronoamperometric regime, the reaction followed a Cottrellian behavior and the diffusion... 

Oil production from asphaltenic oil reservoirs has always encountered difficulties, such as plugging and unpredictable fluid properties. To physically recognize the aspects of asphaltene deposition, several dynamic and static asphaltene deposition tests were designed and performed on one of the giant south Iranian oil reservoirs using dead and live crude oil and real core samples. Moreover, the effects of fluid velocity on the extent of damage were investigated. It was found that surface deposition of asphaltene particles is the main source of formation damages in the porous media and the resulting permeability impairment obeys an exponential behavior. All of the experiments confirm that... 

Epitaxial cerium oxide (CeO2) buffer layer has been grown on lanthanum aluminate (LAO) single crystal substrates for fabrication of c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO). Precursor solution of cerium acetylacetonates with viscosity of 0.6 centipoises was spin coated on the 1×1 cm area LAO substrates. The calcination was carried out by very slow ramp (1°C per minute) until the final temperature of 500°C in oxygen flow to remove most of the organic compounds. The final heat treatment has been done at 780°C by a ramp of 20° per minute in gas flow of mixed argon-oxygen with 5 Pa partial pressure of oxygen. The thickness of the deposited CeO2 buffer layer was 20 nm. Then, 100 nm thick YBCO film was... 

The aim of this study was to develop an appropriate kinetic model for propane dehydrogenation (PDH) over an industrial Pt-Sn/γ-Al 2O 3 catalyst in the presence of small amounts of oxygenated compounds. Experimental data were obtained from a previous study where catalytic PDH was carried out in a laboratory scale reactor at atmospheric pressure in the temperature range of 575-620 °C in the presence of small amounts of water or methanol. The kinetics of the main dehydrogenation reaction was described and the effects of water and methanol on coke deposition and catalyst sintering were considered in a catalyst deactivation model to explain the observed optimum level in the amount of added... 

In this research, submicron bioactive glass (BG) particles were synthesized by a sol-gel process and were then coated on a 316L stainless steel substrate using an electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique. Stable suspension of bioactive glass powders in ethanol solvent was prepared by addition of triethanol amine (TEA), which increased zeta potential from 16.5 ± 1.6 to 20.3 ± 1.4 (mv). Thickness, structure and electrochemical behavior of the coating were characterized. SEM studies showed that increasing EPD voltage leads to a coating with more agglomerated particles, augmented porosity and micro cracks. The results of Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy revealed the adsorption... 

Mordenite (MOR) nanocrystals were synthesized using the hydrothermal method. Sol-gel and deposition methods were utilized to modify the zeolite surface with TiO2 and then AgBr or AgCl particles. Photocatalysts were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and scanning electron microscopy techniques. Activity was evaluated by photodegradation of Acid Blue 92 as an azo dye. The effect of silver halide deposition on the photocatalytic behavior of the prepared nanocomposites was studied under both ultraviolet (UV) and visible light, and the results were compared. The results showed that AgCl/TiO2/MOR was more active under UV, while with visible source,... 

A hydrogen-selective nano-composite ceramic membrane was prepared by depositing a dense layer composed of SiO2 and Al2O 3 on top of a graded multilayer substrate using co-current chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The multilayer substrate was made by dip-coating a macroporous α-alumina tubular support by a series of boehmite solutions to get a graded structure. Using DLS analysis, it was concluded that decreasing hydrolysis time and increasing acid concentration lead to smaller particle size of boehmite sols. XRD analysis was carried out to investigate the structure of intermediate layer and an optimized calcination temperature of 973 K was obtained. SEM images indicated the formation... 

Asphaltene deposition in the early stage of the oil reservoir life and later during any stimulation process emerges critical problems to the petroleum industry. Deposition of asphaltene aggregates raises strict problems in industries and demands markedly a practical and scientific knowledge of the mechanisms of aggregation and precipitation. Fluorescence emission spectroscopy has been widely used to illuminate the fundamental properties of crude oils and asphaltenes. It proposes analysis of some details of equilibrium, dynamic behavior, and aggregation composition of crude oil under specific condition. In this work, the fluorescence spectra of crude-oil extracted asphaltene samples were... 

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  

Crossflow microfiltration of non-alcoholic beer is investigated numerically and it has been verified by experimental data. Due to the presence of particles with different sizes in feed suspension, a modified combination of three mechanisms of particle back-diffusion is developed to predict particle deposition and cake layer buildup during the process. The simulation results show that smaller particles (about 1μm) are the main contributor to the cake layer due to a minimum in back transport and are the main reason of the flux decline. On the other hand, larger particles (a p>20μm) are swept away along the membrane during the filtration process and move toward the membrane exit due to the... 

The electrochemical reduction of tinidazole (TNZ) is studied on gold-nanoparticle/carbon-nanotubes (AuNP/CNT) modified glassy carbon electrodes using the linear sweep voltammetry. An electrochemical procedure was used for the deposition of gold nanoparticles onto the carbon nanotube film pre-cast on a glassy carbon electrode surface. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The effect of the electrodeposition conditions, e.g., salt concentration and deposition time on the response of the electrode was studied. Also, the effect of experimental parameters, e.g., potential and time of accumulation, pH of the buffered solutions and... 

In this letter a simple procedure to synthesize sodium tungsten oxide nano-thick plates from WO 3 films has been reported. WO 3 films were grown by pulsed-laser deposition method and then heat treated at temperatures up to 560 °C and times up to 120 min. Slide glass was used as both substrate and sodium source simultaneously. XRD analysis revealed presence of an amorphous structure for as-deposited WO 3 films. On the other hand, XRD showed formation of a monoclinic WO 3 structure with annealing in lower temperatures and a triclinic Na 0.5WO 3.25 structure with annealing at higher temperatures. Intensity of the triclinic phase peaks enhanced drastically by rising annealing temperature and... 

Nickel modified graphite electrodes (G/Ni) prepared by galvanostatic deposition were examined for their redox process and electrocatalytic activities towards the oxidation of methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol and 2-propanol in alkaline solutions. The methods of cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed. In CV studies, the electrochemical response, peak current varied in the order of MeOH > EtOH > 1-PrOH > 2-PrOH. Under the CA regime, a higher catalytic rate constant obtained for methanol oxidation was in agreement with CV measurements. Lower charge transfer resistance was obtained for low carbon alcohols oxidation and significantly higher... 

In this paper, oil recovery and permeability reduction of a tight sandstone core sample in miscible CO2 flooding processes due to asphaltene deposition were studied using an Iranian bottom hole live oil sample in order to distinguish between the mechanical plugging and adsorption mechanisms of asphaltene involved in the interfacial interaction of the asphaltene/mineral rock system. A novel experimental method was designed and proposed to measure the amount of deposited asphaltene due to different mechanisms using the cyclohexane or toluene reverse flooding and spectrophotometer. In this work, the bottom hole live oil sample was injected first to a long core and then CO 2 injection was... 

Electrodeposition of long and well-defined gold nanotubes in polycarbonate (PC) templates is still a major concern due to pore blockage problems. In the present study, we introduce a novel method for electrodeposition of long gold nanotubes within the pores of PC templates for the first time. In order to deposit gold atoms onto the pore walls preferentially, pore walls were functionalized with a coupling agent. Short and thin Ni nanotubes were then electrodeposited at the bottom of the pores. Gold nanotubes were subsequently electrodeposited at constant potentials and low solution concentrations. The morphology of nanotubes was characterized by electron microscopy and their formation...