Sharif Digital Repository

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... 

We use three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the driven flow between two parallel plates separated by argon atoms. Our simulations show that fluids in such channels can be continuously driven. Difference in surface wettability can cause a difference in fluid density along the nano channel. To control the nanochannel temperature walls, we use the thermal wall idea, which models the walls using atoms connected to their original positions by enforcing linear spring forces. In this study, we propose a nanochannel system in which, half of the channel has a low surface wettability, while the other half has a higher surface wettability and that the middle part of channel... 

The low temperature thermoelectric properties of hydrogen-passivated graphene-based antidot lattices are theoretically investigated. Calculations are performed using density functional theory in conjunction with the Landauer formula to obtain the ballistic transport coefficients. Antidot lattices with hexagonal, triangular and rectangular antidot shapes are studied. Methods to reduce the thermal conductance and to increase the thermoelectric power factor of such structures are studied. Our results indicate that triangular antidot lattices have the smallest thermal conductance due to longer boundaries, the smallest distance between the neighboring antidots, and the armchair edges. This... 

The oxidation of sponge iron products and its destructive effects on iron content as well as other properties have been considered by ferrous technologists for a long time. In this investigation, a unique new low temperature method of preventing and/or retarding the oxidation of direct reduced iron is introduced. Experimental results from laboratory and pilot plant tests show the success of the method which has been named cold briquetting of sponge iron. The optimum condition for briquetting is achieved at 80 kN (Lcm)-1, 6% binder, 10% sponge iron fines and 4% anthracite. While hot briquetted iron has become a successful method for the new generation of iron reduction plants, cold... 

Low temperature plasma (LTP) is nowadays an intensively investigated superficial treatment of wool. In this work we have investigated the effect of LTP on wool fabric under different conditions. The effect of the position of samples inside the reactor and the kind of gases used as discharge medium has been also investigated. The results show that not only the topography of the surface is modified but also the chemical composition of the surface. It is shown that the hydrophilicity of the samples and also their shrink resistance and anti-felting behavior have improved significantly under LTP treatment. The results show that the shrinkage of 30.1% for untreated samples has reduced to about... 

In this work, the silver particle absorption and antibacterial activity of cotton fabric when modified by low temperature plasma were investigated. The modification consisted of plasma pre-functionalization followed by one-step wet treatment with silver nitrate solution. Oxygen and nitrogen were used as the working gases in the system, and the results were compared. The results showed that nitrogen plasma-treated samples can absorb more silver particles than oxygen-treated samples, and thus the antibacterial activity of the samples in this case, which was analyzed by the counting bacteria test, was increased considerably  

This paper reports co-sintering response of nanostructured WC-Co/316L stainless steel composite produced by assembling of powder injection molding (PIM) parts. A significant mismatch sintering shrinkage (>4%) was observed in the temperature range of 1080-1350 °C. The reaction between WC and Fe at the contact area resulted in the diffusion of C and Co into the iron lattice and eventually formation of a low-temperature liquid phase that in fact affects the shape control of the PIM parts during sintering. In order to make the co-sintering feasible, a special sintering cycle was developed. The reaction between the cemented carbide and stainless steel was also retarded by developing a special... 

Heat pipes are important cooling devices that are widely used to transfer high heat loads with low temperature differences. In this paper, thermal performance of a novel type of sintered-wick heat pipe, namely, partly sintered-wick heat pipe, was investigated. The heat pipe was filled with degassed water and acetone, as working uids, and effects of filling ratio, orientation, and heat inputs were tested. Moreover, conditions at which dryout occurred were presented. The results showed that the best filling ratio for both working uids is about 20%. The heat pipe filled with water has better thermal performance than that filled with acetone; thus, the thermal resistances of the 20% water-filled... 

SiC Ceramic was joined to itself using active brazing alloys, like Ti in shape of sheet filler of Ag-cu and Ti-6AI-4V. This operation occurred in an inert gas furnace. Interfacial microstructure was studied with scanning electron microscopy and X-Ray diffraction. Variation of Electrical Specific Resistance measured by 4 pin astute multimeter and strength of these joints was measured by fracture shear loading. This joint happened at 900°C and upper temperature with 90 minutes and upper time. Electrical specific resistance goes up with the joint in low temperature and time but this variation is very little. The microstructure showed excellent bonding at the interfaces. The data showed also... 

Hot corrosion is a serious problem in gas turbines due to poor quality fuels which contain Na, V, S and Cl. To resolve the problem, Cr-aluminide was coated on IN-738LC superalloy with a two steps pack cementation process. Oxidation behavior and near-surface microstructure of the coating showed consecutive increase in destruction by exposition to Na2SO4, 75Na2SO4 + 25 V2O5 and 70Na2SO4 + 25 V2O5 + 5NaCl (wt.%). Kinetic studies indicated parabolic corrosion rate in salt-less samples due to diffusion. Similar expression for salt-covered samples was assessed for oxide dissolution. Plate-like, broken-plate-like and cauliflower-like morphologies attributed to the corrosion products were observed... 

We study the zero-Temperature phase diagram of transverse field Ising model on the J 1-J 2 square lattice. In zero magnetic field, the model has a classical Néel phase for J 2/J 1 < 0.5 and an antiferromagnetic collinear phase for J 2/J 1 > 0.5. We incorporate harmonic fluctuations by using linear spin wave theory (LSWT) with single spin flip excitations above a magnetic order background and obtain the phase diagram of the model in this approximation. We find that harmonic quantum fluctuations of LSWT fail to lift the large degeneracy at J 2/J 1 = 0.5 and exhibit some inconsistent regions on the phase diagram. However, we show that anharmonic fluctuations of cluster operator approach (COA)... 

Branched hierarchical zinc oxide nanowires (BH-ZnO NWs) were fabricated successfully by a facile and rapid synthesis using two-step growth process. Initially, ZnO NWs have been prepared by anodizing zinc foil at room temperature and followed by annealing treatment. Then, the BH- ZnO NWs were grown on the ZnO NWs by a solution based method at very low temperature (31 oC). The BH- ZnO NWs with different aspect ratio were obtained by varying reaction time (0.5, 2, 5, 10 h). Photocatalytic activity of the samples was studied under both UV and visible light. The results indicated that the optimized BH-ZnO NWs (5 h) as a photocatalyst exhibited the highest photoactivity with about 3 times higher... 

Performance of a small-scale trigeneration system driven by low-temperature geothermal sources for producing fresh water, heating (hot water) and electricity is investigated from thermodynamic and economic standpoints. This system, utilizing a single stage absorption heat transformer leads to an increase in heat source temperature to be used in single stage evaporation desalination process and also providing water heating. Furthermore, an organic Rankine cycle is used for electric power generation. The developed model is validated with available data and effects of decision variables namely geothermal source, absorber and condenser temperatures on energy and exergy efficiencies of the... 

Herein, we demonstrate a facile low temperature approach to prepare a gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) based on the triiodide/iodide redox couple in a quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Only one polymeric agent (i.e., hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC)) is used for the preparation of a non-volatile GPE system for the standard liquid electrolyte containing 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide (MPII). The prepared GPE completely penetrates into a TiO2 photoanode at room temperature due to the uniform distribution of Ti, Ru and I elements in the cross-section of the electrode, forming an interpenetrating GPE/TiO2 network to access all dye molecules. The GPE with the optimum HPC : MPII... 

In this work the topological order at finite temperature in two-dimensional color code is studied. The topological entropy is used to measure the behavior of the topological order. Topological order in color code arises from the colored string-net structures. By imposing the hard constrained limit the exact solution of the entanglement entropy becomes possible. For finite size systems, by raising the temperature, one type of string-net structure is thermalized and the associative topological entropy vanishes. In the thermodynamic limit the underlying topological order is fragile even at very low temperatures. Taking first the thermodynamic limit and then the zero-temperature limit and vice...