Sharif Digital Repository

The development of cheaper electrocatalysts for fuel cells is an important research area. This work proposes a new, simpler and low-cost approach to develop nanostructured silver electrocatalysts by using natural cellulose as a template. Silver was deposited by reduction of Ag complexes on the surface of cellulose fibers, followed by heat removal of the template to create self-standing nanostructured silver fibers (NSSFs). X-Ray diffraction (XRD) showed fcc silver phase and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrated that the surface was partially oxidized. The morphology of the fibers consisted of 50 nm nanoparticles as the building blocks, and they possessed a specific surface area... 

Diversion in heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs plays the most important role to the success of acidizing. Without the use of diversion, more acid preferentially flows into the high-permeability region and leaves the low-permeability region underreacted. But a clear understanding of diverting agents, such as polymer-based in-situ-gelled acids, can help uniformly stimulate the near-wellbore region. In this paper, we correct the rheological model that was developed by Ratnakar et al. (2013) according to experimental data from Gomaa and Nasr-El-Din (2010b) by considering shear-rate effect in a two-scale continuum model. It is found that the rheology parameters and shear rate are influential... 

In this paper, a fully coupled numerical model is developed based on the X-FEM technique to simulate the reactive acid transport in fractured porous media. The porous medium consists of the solid and fluid phases, in which the fluid phase includes water and acid components, and chemical reactions can be occurred between acid component and solid phase at the solid–fluid interfaces. The governing equations include the mass and momentum conservation laws for fluid phase, and the advective–diffusive transport of acid component that must be solved to obtain the primary unknowns, including the pore fluid pressure, acid concentration, and fluid velocity vector. Applying the... 

Platinum extraction from spent reforming catalysts in iodine solutions under atmospheric pressure and at temperatures up to 95°C was previously investigated in our group. In this system, platinum is oxidized from the spent catalyst with tri-iodide. In some of the experiments, it was observed that platinum extraction peaked and then decreased. This indicates that a precipitation reaction slowly occurs that removes the dissolved Pt ions from the solution. Power-law rate equation for the Pt extraction to PtI6 2- and the precipitation of the dissolved platinum to PtI 4(s) was implemented to model the experimental Pt extraction data. The activation energies for the platinum dissolution reaction... 

The microstructure of a transient liquid phase (TLP) bonded nickel base superalloy using B-containing filler metal after completion of isothermal solidification can usually be described by a eutectic-free joint centerline with extensive in-situ boride precipitation in the diffusion affected zone which in turn can affect the joint properties. Therefore, designing a proper post-bond heat treatment is needed to produce a robust joint. This paper addresses the microstructure evolution mechanism during post-bond heat treatment (PBHT) of TLP bonded wrought IN718 nickel base superalloy. PBHT at 1150 °C, which is lower than the solvus temperature of the borides, for 12 h resulted in boride-free... 

IN738LC is one of the superior nickel base superalloys utilized at high temperatures in aggressive environments. However, experiencing high temperatures and stresses during service causes microstructure deterioration and degradation of mechanical properties in this alloy. To restore the microstructure and mechanical properties of the degraded alloy, rejuvenation heat treatments can be considered. In this study, the evolution of microstructural features in a creep damaged IN738LC superalloy during different stages of rejuvenation heat treatment cycles was investigated. During solution treatment stage, dissolution of coarsened γ′ precipitates, grain boundary films and transition zone around... 

Over 60% of the world's discovered oil reserves are held in carbonate reservoirs, which are mostly naturally fractured. Conventional water flooding results in low oil recovery efficiency in these reservoirs as most of them are oil-wet. On account of negative capillary forces, injected brine cannot penetrate simply into an oil-wet matrix of fractured formations to force the oil out. Wettability alteration of the rock surface to preferentially more water-wet state has been extensively studied using both smart water and surfactants separately. This study aims to study the effects of Mg2+ as one of the most important wettability influencing ions on the wetting properties of oil-wet carbonate... 

Gradual chemical (displacement) reaction between CuO and Al powders during high-energy attrition milling under a high purity argon atmosphere was studied. Differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques were employed to study the solid-state reaction. It was shown that the solid-state reaction occurred during mechanical alloying (MA) and resulted in the dissolution of copper into the aluminum lattice and formation of nanometric alumina particles. The reinforcement particles were mostly distributed at the grain boundaries of Al matrix with an average crystallite size of about 50 nm. In DTA curve of the milled powders, a small... 

The spatiotemporal dynamic of salinity concentration (SC) in saline lakes is strongly dependent on the rate of water flow into the lake, water circulation, wind speed, evaporation rate, and the phenomenon of salt precipitation and dissolution. Although in-situ observations most reliably quantify water quality metrics, the spatiotemporal distribution of such data are typically limited and cannot be readily extrapolated for either long-term projections or extensive areas. Alternatively, remotely sensed imagery has facilitated less expensive and a stronger ability to estimate water quality over a wide range of spatiotemporal resolutions. This study introduces an adaptive learning model that... 

The leaching kinetics of stibnite in basic solution has been investigated. Spherical pellets of antimony sulphide were dissolved in 1 molar sodium hydroxide solutions at different temperatures. It was found that the shrinking core with ash layer model could satisfactorily explain the dissolution process. Using this model, it was found that initially the rate controlling step was a chemical reaction with activation energy of 10.2 kJ/mol. As the ash layer built up, diffusion through the ash layer became the rate controlling step. The activation energy for this step was found to be 33.4 kJ/mol. It was also observed that smaller particle size, larger solid to liquid ratio, and higher NaOH... 

Kinetics of dissolution of silver present in precious metal scraps in HNO3 was studied in temperature range of 26-85°C. Dissolution rate of silver was much faster than that of copper at all temperatures. Effects of particle size, stirring speed, acid concentration and temperature on the rate of dissolving of silver were evaluated. Dissolution rate decreases with particle size and increases with temperature. Dissolving was accelerated with acid concentrations less than 10 mol/L, Concentrations greater than 10 mol/L resulted in slowing down of the dissolution rate. Shrinking core model with internal diffusion equation t/τ = 1 - 3 (1-x)2/3 + 2 (1-x) could be used to explain the mechanism of the... 

Platinum content of two commercial spent reforming catalysts were extracted in aqua-regia solutions under atmospheric pressure and at temperatures up to 100 °C. Three factors, including presence of coke, catalyst particle size, and impeller agitation speed were first tested to study the relative importance of mass-transfer resistances during Pt extraction reaction. Catalyst particle sizes < 100 μm and agitation speeds > 700 rpm eliminated the internal and external mass-transfer resistances, respectively. The effect of other factors, including HNO3-to-HCl volume ratio, liquid-to-solid mass ratio, and the reaction temperature on the extraction rate of platinum were then examined. Pt extraction... 

The dissolution of plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite (PHA) coatings with different characteristics, produced by various spraying conditions, in a Tris-buffered solution at pH 7.4 was experimentally studied through the measurement of the release of calcium ions. The phase composition of the coatings at surface and interface, and the porosity were evaluated. The analytical modeling revealed that the calcium dissolution process was composed of two stages. The first stage was found to be both surface and diffusion controlled. The second stage was an exactly diffusion-controlled dissolution. In the first stage, the rate of dissolution and the solubility of the coatings with minimum contents of... 

In this article, oxygen barrier properties of nanocomposite films composed of organoclay (OC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer have been investigated. The nanocomposite films whose EVA forms a dominant fraction were prepared using the solution method. The dispersion of the OC in the HDPE/EVA blend was improved through taking two-step procedure in the preparation of nanocomposite. First, the OC and EVA were dissolved in chloroform. Then, the resulting product, after evaporating most of the solvent, along with HDPE was dissolved in xylene. The obtained nanocomposite films underwent a number of tests in order to examine their barrier properties... 

Acidizing of carbonate oil-wet rocks saturated with oil and saline formation water is subjected failure in some cases due to acid-induced damage such as sludge and emulsion formations. This condition may also lead to mineral precipitation, oil film barrier between acid and rock and diversion chemical malfunctions. Therefore, pre-flush process has been proposed as one of the most efficient stage for oil-wells matrix acidizing to reduce these challenges significantly. Besides, the pre-flush stage would result in more clean rock as the reservoir fluids are pushed back from the near wellbore regions, restoring rock wettability to more water wet state, preventing direct acid-oil contact and... 

Attempts have been made to quantify the amount of contaminants absorbed by liquid metal from commercial ZrO2-, Al2O3-, and SiC-base crucibles used for vacuum melting of Ni-45 wt pet Ti alloy. The molten alloy was held under vacuum for 90 minutes at 1450°C to become homogenized. Reactions between the liquid metal and the crucible were investigated by visual observation, chemical analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image processing, and X-ray mapping. The relative degree of contamination declined in the following sequence: commercially pure SiC > SiC-5 wt pct Al2O3-5 wt pet SiO2] > slurry cast alumina > recrystallized alumina > zircon type A > oxygen deficient high-purity zirconia.... 

A facile hydrothermal method and subsequent electroactivation have been developed to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) CuO nanosheet arrays on the copper foil substrate, which can be used directly as a binder-free electrode for supercapacitor applications. Under optimum conditions, by using this facile method, a high capacitance of 125 mF/cm2 at a current density of 0.3 mA/cm2 is obtained. The prepared supercapacitor showed a good rate capability (46.4% capacitance retention, when the current density is increased to more than 30 times) and an excellent cyclability (more than 88% capacitance retention after 3000 cycles). © 2017 Elsevier B.V  

The main purpose of this paper is modeling and simulation of in-situ releasing of smart nano-sized core-shell particles at the water-oil interface during polymer flooding. During the polymer flooding process, when these nano-particles reach the water-oil interface, migrate to the oil phase and the hydrophobic layer of them dissolves in this phase. After dissolution of this protective nano-sized layer, the hydrophilic core containing a water-soluble ultra high molecular weight polymer diffuses back into the water phase and with dissolving in this phase, dramatically increases viscosity of flooding water in the neighborhood of the water-oil interface. In this study, two different... 

The pseudocapacitance and morphology of electrodeposited transition metal oxides depend significantly on the morphology of the substrate. The nanoporous nickel substrate, derived from selective electro-dissolution of antimony from an electro-deposited Ni-Sb alloy, effectively promotes the electrochemical utilization of manganese oxide deposited on this structure. The large electronic and ionic conduction within the nanostructured deposit improve the energy storage performance of Mn oxide as compared to that on flat Ni substrate. In this work, the MnO2 specific capacitances of around 612 F g-1 were obtained, which was five times higher than Mn oxide deposited on a flat Ni-ribbon. A highly... 

Zinc exists as smithsonite and hemimorphite in the lead flotation tailings from the Dandi mineral processing plant in north western Iran. In this research, zinc-rich tailings produced in the Dandi plant were characterized mineralogically and a leaching study was carried out to assess the effect of several parameters on the kinetics of zinc dissolution. Parameters studied included: sulfuric acid concentration, reaction time, temperature and slurry density. It was found that leaching is controlled by a single rate-controlling step with an activation energy of 23.5 kJ/mol. To overcome some of the filtration problems associated with polymerization of silicic acid, lime was added as a coagulant....