Sharif Digital Repository

Asian red ginseng was used for green reduction of chemically exfoliated graphene oxide (GO) into reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The reduction level and electrical conductivity of the ginseng-rGO sheets were comparable to those of hydrazine-rGO ones. Reduction by ginseng resulted in repairing the sp 2 graphitic structure of the rGO, while hydrazine-rGO showed more defects and/or smaller aromatic domains. The ginseng-rGO sheets presented a better stability against aggregation than the hydrazine-rGO ones in an aqueous suspension. Whilst the hydrophobic hydrazine-rGO films exhibited no toxicity against human neural stem cells (hNSCs), the hydrophilic GO and ginseng-rGO films (as more... 

We report improved performance of Li-ion polymer batteries through advanced gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs). Compared to solid and liquid electrolytes, GPEs are advantageous as they can be fabricated in different shapes and geometries; also ionic properties are significantly superior to that of solid and liquid electrolytes. We have synthetized GPE in form of membranes by trapping ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate in a composite of polyvinylidene fluoride and N-methylpyrrolidinore. By applying phase-transfer method, we synthetized membranes with micro-pores, which led to higher ionic conductivity. The proposed membrane is to be modified further to have higher capacity, stronger... 

This paper investigates the effects of acid normality (0.01-6 N HCl) and combustion retention time (0.25- 16 hours) on the pozzolanic properties of pre-combustion acid-treated rice husk ash. The pozzolanic reactivity was quantified by adding ground ash to saturated Ca(OH)2 solutions and monitoring the time-dependent electrical conductivity and pH of the solutions. Also, the strength activity of ashes from different processes was measured by testing the compressive strength of mortars. It was observed that acid treatment results in ashes with higher SiO2 content, lower alkali and unburned carbon content, better grindability, and smaller particle size, in comparison with ash from non-acid... 

Lanthanum chromite coating occupies a noticeable position as a ceramic coating on metallic interconnects in solid oxide fuel cells because of its excellent electrical conductivity, high oxidation resistance and desirable chemical stability in both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres. In the present work, a sol-gel process based on the dip-coating technique was used to prepare dense and uniform coatings on metallic alloy for interconnect application (AISI 430 type). The effect of strontium and calcium doping into lanthanum chromite structure on electrical conductivity and oxidation behavior of the coated sample has been investigated. The oxidation behavior was evaluated by cyclic oxidation... 

We study numerically the heat transfer of steady laminar flow in a square cavity filled with electrically conducting fluids, in the presence of an external uniform magnetic field. Imposing a large temperature gradient between two opposite vertical walls, there are substantial temperature and density variations in the domain. The fluid is treated as an ideal gas. Indeed, high temperature gradient thermo-buoyant cavity flows result in natural convection flow domains with high Rayleigh number. To implement the temperature variation effect, the fluid properties, including the conductivity and viscosity coefficients, are considered to vary with temperature in accordance to the Sutherland's law.... 

MnCo oxide spinels have received recent interest as surface coatings on ferritic stainless steel (FSS) interconnects in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks, where they provide relatively stable electrical conductivity and reduced Cr volatility compared to uncoated FSS interconnects. In this study, sol-gel deposited MnCo surface coatings on FSS, with post-deposition treatments, were investigated in laboratory air at up to 750°C for up to 750h. The protective coating formed and evolved isomorphic crystallites, (Mn,Co,Fe,Cr)3O4, following fifteen (15) fifty hour (50h) cycles in air up to 750°C. Relative to the surface oxide on the uncoated FSS, the coating was dense, crack-free and exhibited... 

Conductive polymers (CPs) are classified as materials which exhibit highly reversible redox behavior and the unusual combined properties of metal and plastics. CPs, due to their multifunctionality, ease of synthesis and their stability, have attracted more attentions in different fields of research, including sample preparation. CPs along with several commercial hydrophilic sorbents, are alternative to the commercially available hydrophobic sorbents which despite their high specific surface areas, have poor interactions and retentions in the extraction of polar compounds. This review covers a general overview regarding the recent progress and new applications of CPs toward their synthesis... 

In this study electrical properties of different water liquids at frequency range of 100-2000 Hz are investigated by using the short invasive and non-invasive cylindrical capacitive sensors (CCSs). Operation of the capacitance measurement module for such probes is based on the auto balancing bridge method. Comparison of the measured capacitances and measured resistances for different water liquids shows decrease by increasing the frequency. In another study the dielectric constant of distilled water, mineral water, tap water and salt water are measured. The effects of the frequency on the resistivity, permittivity and conductance of the different water liquids are also investigated  

The morphological characteristics as well the optical properties of Ca-doped BiFeO3 films grown by pulsed-laser deposition technique have been investigated. AFM images revealed that calcium has a radical effect on the surface features of BiFeO3 films. By utilizing spectrophotometer, transmission behaviour of the films was investigated. Local IV characteristics of the films disclosed about three orders of magnitude enhancement concerning electrical conductivity through Ca doping. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that Ca can reduce the valence state of iron in the compound  

In this paper, a novel structure for MOSFET like CNTFETs (MOSCNTs) is proposed, combining the advantages of both high and low dielectrics to improve output characteristics. In this structure, the gate dielectric at the drain side is selected from a material with low dielectric constant to form smaller capacitances, while a material with high dielectric constant is selected at the source side to improve on current and reduce leakage current. The new structure is simulated based on the Schrödinger-Poisson formulation. Obtained results show that the proposed configuration has lower off and higher on current in comparison with low-k MOSCNTs. Also, using a two-dimensional model, a wide range of... 

A large-signal analysis of sub-harmonic parametric oscillations in Power Amplifiers (PAs) is presented in this paper. Simplified models for current-voltage and channel charge characteristics of short-channel pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistors (pHEMTs) are adopted to investigate the effects of the device transconductance and gate-source capacitance nonlinearities on the amplifier stability. A 5-W Ku-band PA is designed to demonstrate the application of the presented analysis. MMIC PA is implemented in a 0.25-μm GaAs pHEMT process. According to the measurements, the PA provides 37.5 dBm (5.6 W) of output power, 36% of Power Added Efficiency (PAE), and small-signal gain of 18 dB... 

In this work, we used λ-DNA to produce metallic DNA samples and we investigated the stabilization time of their impedances. This is in order to show that the DNA molecules can possibly be utilized as a frame for assembling the nanocircuits and as an electronic element as well, in nanoelectric devices. It has been shown that metallic DNA has lower stabilization time than natural DNA. As expected, it is shown that making the bundled DNA oriented, impacts their impedance stabilization. In order to find the characteristic impedance of the DNA molecules under direct current, we designed and made patterned electrodes to make electrical connections between the DNAs and the used current source. The... 

In this investigation, application of the least square support vector machine (LSSVM) for modeling of the electrical resistivity of the magnetic Zn-Mn-S nanocrystalline semiconductor films has been described. The model has been trained based on the experimental data obtained from a published work by Sreekantha Reddy et al. The model inputs are temperature and variations in the concentrations of Zn, Mn. The results indicate that LSSVM is able to be used for accurate prediction of the electrical resistivity of the Zn-Mn-S nanocrystalline semiconductor films  

The influence of variable fluid properties on mixed electroosmotic and pressure driven flow of non-Newtonian fluids is investigated in this paper. The non-linear coupled energy and momentum equations are solved by means of an iterative numerical approach. The results reveal that the temperature dependent effects only become significant at very high values of the Debye-Hückel parameter in case of combined electroosmotic and pressure driven flow and could safely be neglected in other cases. It is observed that the physical properties variation lead to a higher mean velocity in case of pressure assisted flow and a lower mean velocity in case of pressure opposed flow. Furthermore, the... 

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  

Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT), is one of the medical imaging technologies. It can also be used in industrial process monitoring. In this method, the image of the electrical conductivity distribution of the inner part of a conductive subject can be reconstructed. The image reconstruction process is done by injecting an accurate current into the boundary of a conductive subject (e.g. body), measuring the voltages around the boundary and transmitting them to a computer, and processing on acquired data with a software (e.g., MATLAB). The images are obtained from the peripheral data by using an algorithm. Precise EIT instrumentation plays an important role in the final images quality. In... 

The alcoholic suspensions of titania nano-particles were prepared using the methanol, ethanol, isopropanol and butanol as the solvents as well as triethanolamine (TEA) as an dispersant. The colloidal stability of suspensions, both in the absence as well as presence of TEA, was studied by measuring the zeta potential, sedimentation, pH and electrical conductivity of suspensions, dispersant adsorption and particles size distribution. Results showed that in the absence of TEA, the stability of the suspensions increases with the molecular size of alcohol (from methanol to butanol), while the zeta potential decreases. It was also observed that with the addition of TEA up to the optimum dosage (4... 

An easy method for green and low-temperature (40 °C) reduction of graphene oxide (GO) by increasing the antioxidant activity of green tea polyphenols (GTPs) in the presence of iron was developed. The reduction level (obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and electrical conductivity (obtained by current-voltage measurement) of the GO sheets reduced by GTPs in the presence of iron were comparable to those of hydrazine-reduced GO and much better than those of the GO reduced by only GTPs (in the absence of iron) at reduction temperatures of 40-80 °C. Raman spectroscopy indicated that application of GTPs in the presence of iron, in contrast to hydrazine, resulted in better recovering of... 

Metal films with a periodic arrangement of cut-through slits are studied to show that artificial surface conductivity is created at the flat interface between the periodic slits and the cover/substrate. The presence of surface conductivity when the periodic structure is modeled by an effective refractive index can describe how non-specular higher diffracted orders affect the specular zeroth diffracted order. The magnitude of this surface conductivity is controlled geometrically. The artificial surface conductivity is pure imaginary and thus reactive if all non-specular orders are evanescent. This is usually the case in the low frequency regime. At higher working frequencies when some... 

Graphene oxide nanowalls with extremely sharp edges and preferred vertical orientation were deposited on a graphite electrode by using electrophoretic deposition in an Mg 2+-GO electrolyte. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), reduced graphene nanowalls (RGNWs) were applied for the first time, in developing an ultra-high-resolution electrochemical biosensor for detection of the four bases of DNA (G, A, T, and C) by monitoring the oxidation signals of the individual nucleotide bases. The extremely enhanced electrochemical reactivity of the four free bases of DNA, single-stranded DNA, and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) at the surface of the RGNW electrode was compared to electrochemical...