Sharif Digital Repository

In this investigation, neural networks were used to predict pressure drop of CuO-based nanofluid in a car radiator. For this purpose, the neural network with the multilayer perceptron structure was used to formulate a model for estimating the pressure drop In this way, different concentrations of copper oxide-based nanofluid were prepared. The base fluid was the mixture of ethylene glycol and pure water (60:40 wt%) which usually used as the cooling fluid in automotive industries. The prepared nanofluid samples were used in a car radiator and the pressure drop of nanofluid flows in the system at different Reynolds were measured. The main purpose of this study was developing the optimized... 

In this work, an artificial neural network model was used to obtain the partition coefficients of biomolecules in polymer-polymer aqueous two-phase systems. In the artificial neural network, the partition coefficient of a biomolecule depends on the difference between concentrations of poly (ethylene glycol), dextran in the top and bottom phases, temperature and molecular weights of poly (ethylene glycol), dextran, and the biomolecule. The network topology is optimized and the (6-1-1) architecture is found using optimization of an objective function with sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method for 450 experimental data points. The results obtained from the neural network of the... 

Biocompatible porous polymeric scaffolds provide a suitable environment for proliferation of stem cells in human body. In this research work, porous gelatin–poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, based scaffolds were prepared using combination of freeze-gelation and freeze-extraction methods. Effects of various parameters such as freezing temperature, cross-linking agent, concentrations of gelatin and PEG and their blending ratio on physical and mechanical properties, swelling ratio, porosity, pore size, and degradation rate of scaffolds were investigated. Also, proliferation of fibroblast skin cells on the scaffolds was examined by MTS assay to assess the suitability of the scaffolds in wound healing... 

Linear-dendritic ABA triblock copolymers containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as B block and hyperbranched poly(citric acid) (PCA) as A blocks were synthesized through polycondensation. The molecular self-assembly of synthesized PCA-PEG-PCA copolymers in water led to formation of nanoparticles and fibers in different sizes and shapes depending on the time and size of PCA blocks. Ten days after dissolving PCA-PEG-PCA copolymers in water, the size of fibers had reached several millimeters. Mixing a water solution of fluorescein as a small guest molecule and PCA-PEG-PCA copolymers led to the encapsulation of fluorescein by products of molecular self-assembly. To investigate their potential... 

This study aimed to evaluate the properties of nanocomposite hydrogel (NCH) based on poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG), and Barium titanate (BTNPs). Gamma radiation at various doses (25 kGy, 35 kGy) was employed to prepare cross-linked hydrogel. The effect of PVP concentration, PVP/PEG ratio, and BTNPs content, and irradiation dosage on gel content and swelling ratio of synthesized hydrogels were determined. The Flory-Rehner equation was employed to calculate the network parameters. The FTIR results indicate that the chemical structure was deformed through crosslinking PVP macromolecule radicals. The XRD spectra indicated the cubic phase of BTNPs particles and the... 

The current investigation was to present composite membranes with strong interfacial adhesion between top polymeric selective layer and the bottom micro-porous support layer with appropriate gas permeation behavior and practically suitable processing characteristics. To this end, a series of acrylate-terminated polyurethanes (APUs) based on poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) with different molecular weights (Mn) of 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 4000 g/mol, toluene diisocyanate (TDI), and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) were synthesized. Composite membranes were prepared with UV-curable acrylate-terminated polyurethane/acrylate diluent (APUAs) as selective layer and polyester/polysulfone (PS/PSF) as... 

The partitioning of penicillin G acylase in aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS's) containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) 20000 or 35000 and potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4) or sodium citrate (C 6H5Na3O7 ·5H2O) has been measured at three temperatures, (301.2, 307.2, and 310.2) K. The effects of temperature, polymer molecular weight, and polymer and salt concentrations on the partitioning of penicillin G in the ATPS were studied. The experimental data showed that the composition of salt has a large effect on partitioning of penicillin G in ATPS, and the temperature of the system has a small effect on the partitioning. The UNIFAC-FV group contribution model (Pazuki et al., Ind. Eng. Chem.... 

The partition constants of l-lysine HCl were measured in polymer-salt aqueous two-phase systems. These systems contain poly(ethylene glycol) with a nominal molecular weight of 4000 or 10000 and two different salts (dipotassium hydrogen phosphate or trisodium citrate 5-hydrate). The experimental data were obtained at temperatures of (293.15, 298.15, and 303.15) K. The effects of temperature, pH, polymer and salt concentrations, polymer molecular weight, and salt type on the partitioning of l-lysine HCl were also studied. The results showed that salt concentration has a significant effect on the partition constant while temperature has less effect. The Diamond and Hsu model was used to... 

The aim of this work was to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymer-poly ethylene glycol-folic acid (MIP-PEG-FA) nanoparticles for use as a controlled release carrier for targeting delivery of paclitaxel (PTX) to cancer cells. MIP nanoparticles were synthesized by a mini-emulsion polymerization technique and then PEG-FA was conjugated to the surface of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles showed high drug loading and encapsulation efficiency, 15.6 ± 0.8 and 100%, respectively. The imprinting efficiency of MIPs was evaluated by binding experiments in human serum. Good selective binding and recognition were found in MIP nanoparticles. In vitro drug release studies showed that MIP-PEG-FA have a... 

A new technique for preparation of an unbreakable solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber, using sol-gel technology is developed. Primarily, an ultrathin two-dimensional intermediate film was prepared by hydrolysis of 3-(trimethoxysilyl)-1-propanthiol self-assembled monolayer grafted onto gold, then a stationary phase by electrodeposition of 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propylmethacrylate as a precursor, tetramethyl orthosilicate and polyethylene glycol as a coating polymer was produced. The scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the new fiber exhibits a rather porous and homogenous surface. The thermal stability of the fabricated fiber was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. The... 

Hybrid nanoparticles possess better chemical stability, mechanical resistance, thermal conductivity, physical strength and so forth as equated to pure nanoparticles. The present work describes the novel features of hybrid nanoparticles such as Titanium oxide (TiO2) and Copper (Cu) in the flow of Ethylene glycol (EG) under the induced magnetic field environment. The analysis covers the features of both pure nanofluid Cu/EG and hybrid nanofluid Cu-TiO2/EG. The concentration equation is amended by the activation energy term. The amalgamation of Cu-TiO2/EG exhibits improved and embellished thermal characteristics. A persuasive numerical technique named “Successive over Relaxation” is used to... 

Hybrid nanoparticles possess better chemical stability, mechanical resistance, thermal conductivity, physical strength and so forth as equated to pure nanoparticles. The present work describes the novel features of hybrid nanoparticles such as Titanium oxide (TiO2) and Copper (Cu) in the flow of Ethylene glycol (EG) under the induced magnetic field environment. The analysis covers the features of both pure nanofluid Cu/EG and hybrid nanofluid Cu-TiO2/EG. The concentration equation is amended by the activation energy term. The amalgamation of Cu-TiO2/EG exhibits improved and embellished thermal characteristics. A persuasive numerical technique named “Successive over Relaxation” is used to... 

A soft template route is reported for the fabrication of polyaniline nanospheres via the oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of β-naphthalenesulfonic acid (β-NSA) as both surfactqant and dopant, and ammonium persulfate as oxidant at 2-5°C. Control over the morphology and size of the nanoparticles was achieved by changing the reaction medium via addition of an organic cosolvent (i.e. ethanol or ethylene glycol) and by controlling the concentrations of aniline and β-NSA and the molar ratio of β-NSA to aniline. By this means the size of the β-NSA-aniline micelles and the way that aniline monomer interacts with the micelles were controlled. In fact the lower dielectric constant... 

The properties of colloidal nanoparticles are the key parameters in the fabrication of inexpensive solar cells based on the solution methods. In this study, Different nanostructures of CuInS2 (CIS) were successfully synthesized by a heating-up facile polyol-based method in which, polyols including diethylene glycol (DEG), ethylene glycol (EG), and glycerol (Gly) were chosen as both the solvent and the reductant. It is found that not only the indium precursor type but also the polyol solvent are greatly effective on the size, morphology and crystal phase of this sulfide ternary composition. Briefly, the heating-up synthesis using In(acac)3 in DEG and Gly media, created nano-sized particles... 

In this work, the modified Flory-Huggins coupled with the free-volume concept and the artificial neural network models were used to obtain the osmotic pressure of aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) solutions. In the artificial neural network, the osmotic pressure of aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) solutions depends on temperature, molecular weight and the mole fractions of poly(ethylene glycol) in aqueous solution. The network topology is optimized and the (3-1-1) architecture is found using optimization of an objective function with batch back propagation (BBP) method for 134 experimental data points. The results obtained from the neural network in obtaining of the osmotic pressure of aqueous... 

A high-throughput micro-solid-phase extraction device based on a 96-well plate was constructed and applied to the determination of pesticide residues in various apple samples. Butyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate were copolymerized as a monolithic polymer and placed in the cylindrically shaped stainless-steel meshes of 96-micro-solid-phase extraction device and used as an extracting unit. Before the micro-solid-phase extraction, microwave-assisted extraction was employed to facilitate the transfer of the pesticide residues from the apple matrix to liquid media. Then, 1 mL of the aquatic samples was transferred into the 96-well plate and the 96-micro-solid-phase extraction... 

In this research, partitioning of β-amylase and amyloglucosidase was investigated in polymer-salt aqueous two-phase systems containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with different molecular weights such as 4000, 6000 and 10,000 and Na2SO4 or KH2PO4. The experimental partition coefficients were measured at T = (298.5, 301.5, 303.5, 305.5 and 308) K. The results showed that the concentration of salt in feed had more effect on partition coefficients of β-amylase and amyloglucosidase in aqueous two-phase systems than the concentration of polymer in initial feed. Also, the results indicated that temperature had a small effect on partitioning of β-amylase and amyloglucosidase enzymes. The partition... 

In this work, the partition coefficients of Cephalexin in aqueous two-phase systems containing PEG [poly(ethylene glycol)] 4000, 10000 and K 2HPO4, Na3Citrate (C6H 5Na3O7 5, 5H2O) have been measured. The experimental data were obtained in a wide range of temperatures, (28.2 to 37.2) °C. The effects of temperature, pH, polymer concentration, polymer molecular weight, and salt concentration on the partitioning of Cephalexin were also studied. The results showed that salt concentration has a large effect on the partition coefficient, and temperature has an almost negligible effect. The Chen-NRTL Gibbs energy model was used to correlate the experimental results. © 2009 American Chemical Society  

Surface-modified magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles with an average size of 22 nm were prepared. The nanoparticles had a saturation magnetization of 50.7 emu g-1. Then magnetite and drug-loaded microspheres of poly (lactic acid)/poly (ethylene glycol) were prepared at various compositions. The microspheres were spherical in shape and had smooth surface. The diameter size of the microspheres ranged between about 0.2 and 4 μm. Doxorubicin hydrochloride for cancer treatment was the drug that loaded into the microspheres. The prepared microspheres were characterized by FTIR, XRD, VSM, SEM and drug-release measurements. It was found that the drug cumulative release percentage was proportional to... 

For risk free application of nanoparticles in life science, energy and the environment, it is essential to understand their biological fate and potential toxicity. The application of iron oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery has been one of the most promising researches in the field of nanotechnology. However, there are two major problems associated with magnetically targeted deliveries that still need close attention: • As the drug is coated on to the particle surfaces, there is the possibility of faster drug release (Burst Effect). Therefore, after reaching to the specific site, there is very low amount of drug for delivery. To overcome this problem, some researchers have used conjugation...