Sharif Digital Repository

In the bone tissue engineering field (BTE), it is of significant importance to develop bioactive multifunctional scaffolds with enhanced osteoconductivity, osteoinductivity, and antibacterial properties required for lost bone tissue regeneration. In this work, a bioactive glass-ceramic scaffold was manufactured via a novel polymer-derived ceramics (PDC) manufacturing method. To gain antibacterial properties, the silver ions were incorporated in controlled amount along with other precursors in the PDC processing stage. Microstructural and structural properties of the fabricated silicate-phosphate glass-ceramic scaffold were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy... 

Photocatalytic wastewater treatment and concurrent energy production or metal ions conversion to less harmful products have great potential to address both environmental and energy challenging issues, two of the most significant problems facing humankind. Many efforts have been devoted for achieving enhanced photocatalytic activity as well as optimizing reaction conditions and materials design. In this context, various strategies were applied to develop efficient dual-functional photocatalysts for environmental purification and simultaneous energy production. Concurrent photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants and Cr(VI) reduction to less toxic Cr(III) improved the rate of both... 

The productive and straightforward strategy was developed to fabricate graphene based NiFe2O4 doped rare-earth (RE) ions nanocomposites for enhancing the magnetic and structural characteristics of ferrites. RE nanoparticles (NPs) such as Yb3+, Gd3+ and Sm3+ were doped in NiFe2O4 ferrite structure via sol-gel auto-combustion method and hydrothermal method was utilized to fabricate their graphene-based nanocomposites. The weight loss and decomposition of the nanocomposites were determined using temperature-dependent thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA/DTA). The single-phase structure of the NiFe2O4, NiFe2O4/G, Yb doped NiFe2O4/G, Gd doped NiFe2O4/G, and Sm doped NiFe2O4/G nanocomposites was... 

L-tryptophan functionalized AgNPs were successfully fabricated using a one-pot synthesis method and assessed as a colorimetric probe for rapid and accurate determination of Mg2+ ions. The developed sensor showed a selective response towards Mg2+ with no interference from Ca2+ in the wide concentration range of 1–200 µM. The sensor's response was optimized in the pH range of 9–10, which can be attributed to the protonation of amine groups and their interaction with Mg2+ ions. The stability and selectivity of the sensor were examined in different salt (NaCl) and other metal ions, respectively. The L-tryptophan-AgNPs sensor detected Mg2+ with the limit of detection of 3 µM, which is way lower... 

Background: Integrated sewage sludge handling and heavy metal management are important issues that scientists are working to solve today. Methods: Hydrothermal carbonization of dewatered digested sewage sludge (DDSS) under various conditions is carried out in this work, followed by alkali activation. The response surface methodology is used to investigate the operating process conditions and optimize them in order to produce hydrochar with the highest modified adsorption capacity (yield and Pb2+ adsorption). Significant Findings: The ideal conditions are 182.4°C, 4.9 hours, 5.025 (w/w) water/DDSS ratio, and 3.5 (w/w) ZnCl2/DDSS ratio. In addition, the Langmuir isotherm (qmax =109.3 mg/g) and... 

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have recently achieved much attention to eliminating toxic pollutants because of their attractive attributes, including large specific surface area, ultra-high porosity, abundant active adsorption sites, tunable surface chemistry, well-controlled pore size distribution, and strong host–guest interactions. Among the many developed MOFs, the Zr-based MOFs, particularly the UiO-66 family, are considered extremely attractive for wastewater treatment applications. The fascinating properties of UiO-66 such as high thermal stability, superior chemical resistance towards several solvents, including benzene, acetone, different alcohols, dimethylformamide, acidic and... 

Developing extremely efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reactions (OER) is a decisive step toward the progression of rechargeable metal-oxygen batteries, CO2 reduction, and water-splitting. Nanoporous high-entropy transition-metal sulfides (np-HETMS) represent a new generation of promising OER catalysts by virtue of their exceptional catalytic activity. However, their synthesis maintains to be a challenge by reason of the thermodynamic immiscibility of the constituting multi-principal metallic elements in the sulfide structure. Herein, for the first time, the np-HETMS ((CoFeNiMnCu)S2) nanoparticles with pyrite-phase was synthesized via a facile and easy adaptable... 

Magnetic nanofiber cellulose (NFC) was selected as a biopolymer surface for the reaction with ferric metformin and a novel nanocatalyst was prepared. This green heterogeneous organometallic catalyst was analyzed by physiochemical techniques. The new metformin drug complex supported on magnetic NFC was used as a powerful and efficient catalyst for the synthesis of functionalized 4H-pyrans derivatives. The antimicrobial activity of the products showed excellent activity against all the bacterial and fungal strains (especially compounds 7q and 6r). © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC  

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a good candidate for cost-effective perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to its direct bandgap with a value of 1.4–1.5 eV. In this study, we investigate CZTS ink as an inorganic hole-transport-layer (HTL) in CsMAFAPbIBr mixed halide PSCs. We study the cell efficiency and hole extraction from the perovskite layer for different thicknesses of HTL. The optimized device exhibits better hole selectivity, and the best efficiency of the device (12.84%) is achieved for the CZTS layer with a thickness of 159 nm. The prepared samples were also tested by open-circuit voltage decay analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopies. Results show that the optimized device effectively... 

A bacterial strain was isolated and cultured from the oil excavation areas in tropical zone in southern Iran. It was affiliated with Pseudomonas. The biochemical characteristics and partial sequenced 16S rRNA gene of isolate, MR01, was identical to those of cultured representatives of the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacterium was able to produce a type of biosurfactant with excessive foam-forming properties. Compositional analysis revealed that the extracted biosurfactant was composed of high percentages lipid (∼65%, w/w) and carbohydrate (∼30%, w/w) in addition to a minor fraction of protein (∼4%, w/w). The best production of 2.1 g/l was obtained when the cells were grown on... 

Carbonaceous materials (CMs) have been applied extensively for enhancing the catalytic performance of environmental catalysts, however, the self-catalytic mechanism of CMs for groundwater remediation is rarely investigated. Herein, we unveiled the catalytic ability of various CMs via Fe(III) reduction through polyvinyl alcohol-coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) for trichloroethylene (TCE) removal. Among selected CMs (graphite (G), biochar (BC) and activated carbon (AC)), BC and AC showed enhancement of TCE removal of 89% and 98% via both adsorption and catalytic degradation. BET and SEM analyses showed a higher adsorption capacity of AC (27.8%) than others. The generation of... 

Carbonaceous materials (CMs) have been applied extensively for enhancing the catalytic performance of environmental catalysts, however, the self-catalytic mechanism of CMs for groundwater remediation is rarely investigated. Herein, we unveiled the catalytic ability of various CMs via Fe(III) reduction through polyvinyl alcohol-coated calcium peroxide nanoparticles (PVA@nCP) for trichloroethylene (TCE) removal. Among selected CMs (graphite (G), biochar (BC) and activated carbon (AC)), BC and AC showed enhancement of TCE removal of 89% and 98% via both adsorption and catalytic degradation. BET and SEM analyses showed a higher adsorption capacity of AC (27.8%) than others. The generation of... 

A five-coordinated Fe(III) complex with the distorted trigonal bipyramidal configuration was synthesized by reactions of FeCl36H2O and 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl)oxazoline (Hphox) as a bidentate ON donor oxazoline ligand. Complex [Fe(phox)2Cl] was fully characterized, including by single-crystal X-ray structure analysis. DFT calculations were accompanied with experimental results in order to obtain a deeper insight into the electronic structure and vibrational normal modes of complex. Oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides in one-step was conducted by this complex as catalyst using urea hydrogen peroxide (UHP) in mixture of CH2Cl 2/CH3OH (1:1) under air at room temperature. The results show that using... 

In salting-out liquid-liquid extraction (SALLE) technique, water-miscible organic solvents are used for extraction of polar analytes from saline solutions. In this study, for the first time, a coupled 1-mL syringes system was utilized to perform a miniaturized SALLE method. Sulfanilamide antibiotic was extracted and determined via the developed method followed by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV). The extraction process was carried out by rapid shooting of acetonitrile as extraction solvent (syringe B) into saline aqueous sample solution (syringe A), and then the shooting was repeated several times at a rate of 1 cycle s-1. Thereby, an extremely large... 

Upon incorporation of nanoparticles (NPs) into the body, they are exposed to biological fluids, and their interaction with the dissolved biomolecules leads to the formation of the so-called protein corona on the surface of the NPs. The composition of the corona plays a crucial role in the biological fate of the NPs. While the effects of various physicochemical parameters on the composition of the corona have been explored in depth, the role of temperature upon its formation has received much less attention. In this work, we have probed the effect of temperature on the protein composition on the surface of a set of NPs with various surface chemistries and electric charges. Our results... 

In the present work a central composite design based on response surface methodology (RSM) is employed for fine tuning of the aspect ratios of seed-mediated synthesized gold nanorods (GNRs). The relations between the affecting parameters, including ratio of l-ascorbic acid to Au3+ ions, concentrations of silver nitrate, CTAB, and CTAB-capped gold seeds, were explored using a RSM model. It is observed that the effect of each parameter on the aspect ratio of developing nanorods highly depends on the value of the other parameters. The concentrations of silver ions, ascorbic acid and seeds are found to have a high contribution in controlling the aspect ratios of NRs. The optimized parameters led... 

In this study, the anticorrosive effect of dodecylbenzenesulfonicacid-doped polyaniline nanoparticles [n-PANI (DBSA)] as a conductive polymer was investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. Initially, the n-PANI (DBSA) were successfully synthesized via inverse microemulsion polymerization leading to the spherical nanoparticles with an average diameter less than 30 nm. Two coating systems including 1 wt% n-PANI(DBSA) blended epoxy ester (n-PANI(DBSA)/EPE) and neat epoxy ester (EPE) were coated on the carbon steal substrate. The anticorrosion performance of the prepared coatings was studied using EIS measurement in 3.5%... 

Superparamganetic iron oxide-based contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have offered new possibility for early detection of lymph nodes and their metastases. According to important role of nanoparticle size in biodistribution, magnetite nanoparticles coated with different polyethylene glycol (PEG) concentrations up to 10/1 PEG/iron oxide weight ratio in an ex situ manner. To predict the PEG-coated nanoparticle behavior in biological media, such as blood stream or tissue, colloidal stability evaluation was performed to estimate the coating endurance in different conditions. Accordingly, optical absorbance measurements were conducted in solutions with different values of pH and... 

The ability of Paraconiothyrium variabile, a laccase producing ascomycete recently isolated from soil, was studied to eliminate chlorophenol derivatives in submerged culture medium. Among the tested compounds, ρ-chlorophenol (ρ-CP) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) were found to have minimum and maximum toxic effects, respectively, on the growth of the microorganism and at the same time high and low bioelimination percentages. The fungal strain was able to remove 86% of ρ-CP (with initial concentration of 40mgl -1) and 56% of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP; with same concentration as ρ-CP) after 9 days of incubation while no elimination was observed in the presence of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol... 

Ce-doped ZnO nanocomposite thin films with Ce/Zn ratio fixed at optimum value (10 at.%) have been prepared via sol-gel method at different annealing temperatures varied from 180 to 500 °C. The synthesized samples were characterized employing atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. According to AFM analysis, the average grain size increased from about 70 nm to 150 nm by increasing the annealing temperature from 300 to 500 °C. Moreover, based on the XPS data analysis, it was found that three major metal ions namely Ce 3+, Ce4+, and Zn2+ coexist on the surface of the nanocomposite films. XPS data analysis also revealed that...