Sharif Digital Repository

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... 

A new heterogeneous catalytic system was prepared by immobilization of tungstate ions on a cross-linked poly(ionic liquid) nanogel. The solid nanogel was easily synthesized by a surfactant-less method. The resulting catalyst was highly active in selective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides by H2O2. The oxidation reactions were successfully performed under solvent-free conditions affording high yields. The catalyst was recycled and reused for several reaction cycles without any significant loss of catalytic activity  

Magnetite nanoparticles with a size distribution of 15-21 nm were synthesized and decorated onto surface of graphene oxide by ultrasound assisted precipitation. Size and size distribution of the obtained M-GO hybrid were appreciably finer than the hybrids prepared by stirring method. M-GO is a superparamagnetic material with saturation magnetization of 31 emu g-1. The Langevin equation was successfully applied for estimation of size of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in M-GO hybrid, with maximum error of 17.5%. The study put forward a formation mechanism for M-GO, based on instrumental analyses. Adsorption isotherms of Sr2+ and Co2+ ions, which were fitted by Langmuir monolayer... 

The preparation and characterization of a new type of nanocomposite polyelectrolyte membrane, based on DuPont Nafion/imidazole-modified nanosilica (Im-Si), for direct methanol fuel cell applications is described. Related to the interactions between the protonated imidazole groups, grafted on the surface of nanosilica, and negatively charged sulfonic acid groups of Nafion, new electrostatic interactions can be formed in the interface of Nafion and Im-Si which result in both lower methanol permeability and also higher proton conductivity. Physical characteristics of these manufactured nanocomposite membranes were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetry analysis,... 

In this study, Lipase from Aspergillus Niger after extraction of medium culture was precipitated with different percentages of acetone and purified by ion exchange chromatography using SP-Sepharose HP and Q-Sepharose HP. The process of purification of the enzyme was studied by electrophoresis and the molecular weight was detected and determined by Zymography using overlying containing phenol red and Rhodamine B. The results showed that the vast majority of lipase from this strain has been precipitated by 70% saturation acetone, and leads to the 1.67 fold the purified enzyme, with special activities 32.8 U. mg-1 and efficiency of 38.5%. Using two-phase chromatography, enzyme specific activity... 

The ion exchange process is a promising method for lithium extraction from brine and seawater having low concentrations of this element. To achieve this goal, it is vital to use an effective adsorbent with maximum lithium adsorption potential together with a stable structure during extraction and insertion of the ions. In this study, titanium dioxide and then lithium titanate spinel with nanotube morphology was synthesized via a simple two-step hydrothermal process. The produced Li4Ti5O12 spinel ternary oxide nanotube with about 70 nm diameter was then treated with dilute acidic solution in order to prepare an adsorbent suitable for lithium adsorption from local brine. Morphological and... 

A stable copper (hydr)oxide-modified electrode was prepared in 0.5 mol/L NaOH solution by cyclic voltammetry in the range of -250 to 1000 mV. It can be used for electrochemical studies in the range of -250 to 1000 mV without interfering peaks because there is no oxidation of copper. During an anodic potential sweep, the electro-oxidation of saccharose on Cu occurred by the formation of CuIII and this reaction also occurred in the early stages of the reversed cycle until it is stopped by the negative potentials. A mechanism based on the electro-chemical generation of CuIII active sites and their subsequent consumption by saccharose was proposed, and the rate law and kinetic parameters were... 

Specific studies were performed in order to increase the thickness of laser generated directed space charge quasineutral plasma blocks with anomalously high ion current densities above 1011 A/ cm2. This may lead to an alternative scheme of laser driven fusion with the irradiation of petawatt-picosecond laser pulses. Initial electron densities were used with Rayleigh profiles, because these are unique for inhomogeneous plasmas for undistorted acceleration at very low reflectivity until thermal absorption processes disturb these ideal conditions. Numerical hydrodynamic results based on a genuine two-fluid code are presented to optimize the block generation for possible fast ignition and... 

Bacterial toxicity of graphene nanosheets in the form of graphene nanowalls deposited on stainless steel substrates was investigated for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative models of bacteria. The graphene oxide nanowalls were obtained by electrophoretic deposition of Mg2+-graphene oxide nanosheets synthesized by a chemical exfoliation method. On the basis of measuring the efflux of cytoplasmic materials of the bacteria, it was found that the cell membrane damage of the bacteria caused by direct contact of the bacteria with the extremely sharp edges of the nanowalls was the effective mechanism in the bacterial inactivation. In this regard, the Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria with an... 

Corrosion inhibition properties of some heterocyclic compounds (3-mercapto 1,2,4 triazole, benzotriazole, thiophene, and tetra hydro-thiophene) in Cu/H3PO4 medium were investigated theoretically and experimentally via cluster/polarized continuum and gravimetric approaches. Second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation and density functional theories were applied, and the electronic chemical potential, molecular softness, and extent of charge transfer were determined for inhibitor molecules at the metal/solution interface. Good correlations were observed for both theories between the calculated quantities and experimental data. To reveal the quality of metal-inhibitor interactions, comprehensive... 

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-doped TiO2 thin films with various CNT contents were synthesized by sol-gel method for visible light photoinactivation of Escherichia coli bacteria. Post annealing of the CNT-doped TiO2 thin films at 450 °C resulted in anatase TiO2 and formation of Ti-C and Ti-O-C carbonaceous bonds in the film. By increasing the CNT content, the thin films could further inactivate the bacteria in the dark. Meanwhile, as the CNT content increased from zero to 40 wt% the effective optical band gap energy of the CNT-doped TiO2 thin films annealed at 450 °C decreased from 3.2-3.3 to less than ∼2.8 eV providing light absorption in the visible region. Concerning this, visible light... 

Impedance characteristics of the negative electrode of lead-acid battery were derived on the basis of fundamental interfacial processes occurring at the electrode. The solution of the governing equations was presented in terms of a simple equivalent circuit consisting of resistive and capacitive loops in which charge transfer and sulfate layer formation and also mass transfer (Warburg) elements are considered. The kinetic parameters were deduced by fitting the theoretically derived impedance to the experimental data. Impedance at various States of Charge (SoC) was also examined  

We have investigated the electronic structure of Sr(Ca)Ru1-xCrxO3 using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method by different approximation such as LSDA and LSDA+U. The LSDA calculation suggest that Cr4+-Ru4+ hybridization is responsible for the high Curie temperature TC in SrRu1-xCrxO3, but it cannot completely describe its physical behavior. Our LSDA+U DOS results for SrRu1-xCrxO3 clearly establishes renormalization of the intra-atomic exchange strength at the Ru sites, arising from the Cr-Ru hybridization. The antiferromagnetic coupling of Cr3+ with Ru4+,5+ lattice increases the screening, which is consistent with the low magnetic moment of the Ru ions. The more distorted... 

Electrodeposition of gold nanowires is carried out in cyanide solution in polycarbonate templates with pore diameter of 80 nm. Electrochemical methods are utilized to characterize the gold electrodeposition and to obtain the nucleation and growth mechanism. The analysis of cyclic voltammograms shows that the electrodeposition of gold nanowires takes place under diffusion control. Current transients reveal that nucleation mechanism is instantaneous with a three-dimensional growth process. The transition-time measurements show that the gold elecrodeposition occurs as one-electron valence involved in the reaction mechanism. Charge transfer coefficient is also found to be 0.67 ± 0.01. The value... 

The influence of an externally applied bias on photocatalytic performance of crystallized TiO2/Ti nanotubular electrode formed by anodization in fluoride-based electrolyte were investigated and compared to the behavior of multiporous TiO2 electrode. The photoelectrocatalytic oxidation behavior of methanol over the nanotubular electrode has been studied by measuring photocurrent response, potentiodynamic polarization spectroscopy and using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). It was found that the photoelectrocatalytic oxidation and the charge transfer rate constant of reaction on TiO2/Ti nanotubular electrode can significantly be increased by applying electrochemical bias. Moreover,... 

Citric acid was polymerized onto the surface of functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTCOOH) and MWCNT-graft-poly(citric acid) (MWCNTg-PCA) hybrid materials were obtained. Due to the grafted poly(citric acid) branches, MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials not only were soluble in water but also were able to trap water soluble metal ions. Reduction of trapped metal ions in the polymeric shell of MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials by reducing agents such as sodium borohydride led to encapsulated metal nanoparticles on the surface of MWCNT. Herein palladium nanoparticles were encapsulated and transported by MWCNT-g-PCA hybrid materials (MWCNT-g-PCA-EPN) and their application as nanocatalyst toward... 

Nickel and nickel-manganese alloy modified graphite electrodes (G/Ni and G/NiMn) prepared by galvanostatic deposition were examined for their redox process and electrocatalytic activities towards the oxidation of methanol in alkaline solutions. The methods of cyclic voltammetery (CV), chronoamperometry (CA) and impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed. In CV studies, in the presence of methanol NiMn alloy modified electrode shows a significantly higher response for methanol oxidation. The peak current of the oxidation of nickel hydroxide increase is followed by a decrease in the corresponding cathodic current in presence of methanol. The anodic peak currents show linear dependency upon the... 

In the present research, proton exchange membranes based on partially sulfonated poly (ether sulfone) (S-PES) with various degrees of sulfonation were synthesized. It was found that the increasing of sulfonation degree up to 40% results in the enhancement of water uptake, ion exchange capacity and proton conductivity properties of the prepared membranes to 28.1%, 1.59 meq g -1, and 0.145 S cm -1, respectively. Afterwards, nanocomposite membranes based on S-PES (at the predetermined optimum sulfonation degree) containing various loading weights of organically treated montmorillonite (OMMT) were prepared via the solution intercalation technique. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the...