Sharif Digital Repository

Humanity's challenges are becoming increasingly difficult, and as these challenges become more advanced, the need for effective and intelligent action becomes more apparent. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has plagued the world, could be considered as an opportunity to take a step toward the need for atomic engineering, compared to molecular engineering, as well as to accelerate this type of research. This approach, which can be expressed in terms of picotechnology, makes it possible to identify living cell types or in general, chemical and biological surfaces using their atomic arrays, and applied for early diagnosis even treatment of the disease. © 2020... 

The effects of Pd addition to Fe (Pd/Fe = 0, 2.5/7.5, 5/5, 7.5/2.5 and 1) and growth temperatures (920 and 970 °C) on density, diameter and growth mode of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been studied. SEM observations and TG analyses confirmed that the CNT yields depend on Pd/Fe ratios as (7.5/2.5) > (5/5) > Pd > (2.5/7.5) > Fe at both growth temperatures. TEM data showed that addition of Pd results in tip growth mode. From Raman spectroscopy data, the order of samples' structural quality (I G /I D ratio) are Fe > Pd/Fe (2.5/7.5) > (5/5) > (7.5/2.5) > Pd and the I G /I D ratios increase by decreasing the growth temperature. Films with higher concentration of Fe (Pd/Fe = 0, 2.5/7.5) contain some... 

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with its sluggish kinetics has imposed a significant barrier to the sustainable and green generation of hydrogen fuel (via electrolysis of water) and the development of metal-air batteries. In this study, we report an efficient and novel OER electrocatalyst based on NiSe2nanoparticles (NPs) and the naturally abundant halloysite clay mineral. The NiSe2/halloysite nanocomposite (NiSe2/H) was prepared by a simple one-step hydrothermal route. The electrocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized nanocomposite and its components (pristine NiSe2and halloysite) toward OER in 1.0 KOH solution was examined. The NiSe2/H nanocomposite exhibited a significantly... 

In this contribution, reduced grapheme oxides (rGO) with immobilized tin oxide (SnO2) nanocatalysts were synthesized via the Incipient Wetness Impregnation (IWI) method. To characterize the SnO2/rGO composites, several analyses including the; XRD, Raman, FTIR, ICP-OES, BET-BJH, XPS, TEM, and TPD were utilized. Then the effects of parameters including reaction time, total metal loading, and the initial sulfur concentration of model fuel in the dibenzothiophene (DBT) oxidation desulfurization process were evaluated. After determining the optimal conditions for the aforementioned parameters, the influences of 3 effective factors of the molar ratio of oxidant/substrate (O/S), the molar ratio of... 

The great promise of electrochemical water splitting for green and sustainable hydrogen fuel production has motivated researchers to strive for more efficient and low-cost catalysts based on non-precious metals. In this study, MoS2 nanoflowers decorated with CuCo2O4 were successfully synthesized, and their catalytic activities toward the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an alkaline medium were investigated. The composition, structure, and morphology of the as-synthesized catalysts were explored by various techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, BET, SEM, and TEM. To maximize the catalytic activity, the composition of the nanocomposites was systematically varied. Catalytic results... 

In this study, a new polymeric functionalized magnetic nanocatalyst containing a molybdenum Schiff base complex was prepared using a few consecutive steps. Poly (methylacrylate)-coated magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized via radical polymerization of methyl acrylate onto modified magnetic nanoparticles followed by the amidation of the methyl ester groups with hydrazine. Polymeric functionalization efficiently provides the advantage that more catalytic units can be grafted on the surface of magnetic nanoparticles. The functionalization process was continued with salicylaldehyde which introduced Schiff base groups on to the surface of the polymeric support. In the final step, the desired... 

Selective oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur is a low cost and highly efficient process for sulfur removal from H2S-containing hydrocarbon streams in medium scale (i.e. 0.2–10 ton sulfur/day) for environmental protection and prevention of emitting toxic gases to the atmosphere. In this research, in order to prepare a highly active and selective nanocatalyst for selective oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, for the first time, molybdenum oxides were loaded uniformly over nitrogen- doped carbon nanotubes through incipient wetness impregnation. Different metal loadings including 5, 10, and 15 wt% Mo were considered in the synthesis procedure to achieve the optimized performance and provide... 

Graphene oxide (GO) was chemically modified withpara-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) to immobilize copper(ii) ions on its surface and used as a nanocatalyst for the oxidative C(sp2)-H bond amination reaction. A practical method to prepare Cu2+supported onpara-aminobenzoic acid grafted on GO was reported. The prepared Cu2+@GO/PABA was characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, AFM, TEM, UV-Vis, and ICP techniques. The results showed that the morphology, distribution, and loading of copper ions could be well-adjusted by grafting of PABA on GO. Moreover, just 2 mol% of Cu2+@GO-PABA could catalyze the C-H activation reaction of benzoxazole and benzothiazole with secondary amines in >94% yields. Also, the... 

Mass transfer efficiency and catalytic reactivity are the two major hurdles for heterogeneous catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO) technologies. To address these issues, nanocomposite CuFeO2/Al2O3 was synthesized and assessed as a novel catalyst for enhanced adsorption and oxidation of anionic pollutants (catechol and reactive red 195 (RR195)) in waters. With a positive charge on the nanocomposite by introducing Al2O3, the adsorption of anionic pollutants was promoted. The surface complexation reaction on CuFeO2/Al2O3, which fits well to the Langmuir isotherm, has engined the mass transfer of pollutants to the nanocatalyst that demonstrated 96.46% and 99.75% removal of catechol and RR195... 

The preparation, characterization and catalytic application of a novel copper-loaded ionic liquid-based periodic mesoporous organosilica (Cu@PMO-IL) are described. The mesoporous structure of the Cu@PMO-IL material is characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. The thermal stability of the material is also determined by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The presence of copper species in the material framework is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and elemental analysis (EA). The catalytic application of Cu@PMO-IL nanocatalyst is then investigated in the Biginelli condensation of different aldehydes with urea and... 

A copper catalyst has been explored as an efficient and recyclable catalyst to effect Sonogashira and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions. After modification of 2-(((piperazin-1-ylmethyl)imino)methyl)phenol (PP) on the surface of amorphous silica-coated iron oxide (Fe3O4@SiO2@Cl) magnetic core–shell nanocomposite, copper(II) chloride was employed to synthesize the Fe3O4@SiO2@PP-Cu catalyst, affording a copper loading of 1.52 mmol g−1. High yield, low reaction times, non-toxicity and recyclability of the catalyst are the main merits of this protocol. The catalyst was characterized using Fourier transform infrared, X-ray photoelectron, energy-dispersive X-ray and inductively coupled plasma optical... 

Two mononuclear coordination complexes of fullerene[60] with Pd(dba)2 (dba = dibenzylideneacetone), [(η2-C60)Pd(Ph2P(CH2)2PPh2C(H)C(O)R)2] (R = C10H7 (1), C6H4Cl (2)), have been prepared using a simple procedure to explore new directions in palladium catalysis and nanocarbon chemistry. The palladium(0)-[60]fullerene complexes incorporating unsymmetrical phosphorus ylides have been characterized by 1H, 13C and 31P NMR spectroscopic methods and other conventional techniques such as IR, TGA, SEM, ICP-OES, EDX and TEM analysis. Attributed to the enhanced dispersity and uniform size of the Pd nanoparticles with phosphine-functionalized fullerenes, the prepared catalysts exhibited comparable... 

Porous carbon (PC) material was prepared from the carbonization of pomegranate peel waste. Subsequently, magnetically separable Fe3O4@PC was synthesized from Fe3O4 nanoparticles decorated on PC by the co-precipitation method of iron ions. Finally, Fe3O4@PC was successfully decorated with palladium nanoparticles in a simple route by reducing H2PdCl4 in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate, which was used as both surfactant and reducing agent. Additionally, the effect of temperature on the carbonization process was studied. The Pd/Fe3O4@PC nanocomposite was used as an efficient and heterogeneous catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura and Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions in an environmentally... 

Supportless Ni-Pd-0.1CNT foamy nanocatalyst with specific surface area of 611.3 m2/g was produced by electroless deposition of nickel, palladium and multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) on interim polyurethane substrate. Application of temperature programmed reduction (TPR) and temperature programmed oxidation (TPO) data into Kissinger (Redhead) kinetic model showed lessening of their activation energies due to Pd and CNT addition. Presence of foamy Ni/SiC caused 8% higher steam reforming of methane; while Ni-Pd-0.1CNT presence resulted in 22% higher methane conversion. The catalytic behavior of the samples was described by morphological and compositional studies which were carried out by... 

Cu-MOF/rGO nanocomposite was synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method and used as proper support for Cu2O particles. Various microscopic and spectroscopic methods were applied to characterize the morphology of Cu2O/Cu-MOF/rGO nanocatalyst. Catalytic results of 4-nitrophenol reduction in the presence of NaBH4 indicate that as-synthesized nanocomposite shown significant improved activity compared with pure Cu2O particles. Enhanced catalytic performance of nanocomposite can be ascribed to the high adsorption ability of Cu-MOF and effective electron transfer due to the presence of rGO. A possible mechanism was proposed for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol over Cu2O/Cu-MOF/rGO. © 2019... 

The nanocomposite of zero-valent iron and delafossite CuFeO2 supported on reduced graphene oxide was synthesized for the first time to evaluate its performance as the heterogeneous catalyst toward electro-Fenton (EF) removal of catechol. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared, scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) were used to characterize the nanocomposite. It was found that the rhombohedral structure of CuFeO2 remained stable during the nanocomposite preparation. The BET surface area of the nanocomposite increased about 102 times in comparison with bare CuFeO2. The influence of the operating parameters was investigated. The optimum operating conditions were... 

In this research, it is aimed to enhance the heat transfer properties of the carbon nanotubes through nitrogen doping. To this end, nitrogen-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) were synthesized via chemical vapor deposition method. For supplying carbon and nitrogen during the synthesis of N-CNTs, camphor and urea were used, respectively, at 1000 °C over Co–Mo/MgO nanocatalyst in a hydrogen atmosphere. N-CNTs with three different nitrogen loadings of 0.56, 0.98, and 1.38 mass% were synthesized, after which, water/N-CNT nanofluids of these three samples with concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 mass% were prepared. To obtain a stable nanofluid, N-CNTs were functionalized by nitric acid... 

Aqueous-phase reforming (APR) of oxygenated hydrocarbons for hydrogen production presents several advantages as feed molecules might be easily found in a wide range of biomass; there is no need for its vaporization and the process allows thorough exploitation of the environmental benefits of using hydrogen as an energy carrier. In this contribution, catalysts with active phase Ni supported on Al2O3-MgO were synthesized at different loadings (1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 wt%) through the co-precipitation technique and tested for the Glycerol APR reaction. Effects of the Ni loading on physicochemical characteristics of Ni/Al2O3-MgO catalysts were examined. Moreover, catalytic performance was... 

CoMo/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) catalyst was synthesized for the oxidative desulfurization process (ODS) of dibenzothiophene (DBT) in n-decane. Parameters including total metal (Co and Mo) loading, Co/Mo and CA (citric Acid)/Mo molar ratios were investigated toward achieving optimum conditions. The catalysts were characterized by the XRD, ICP, FTIR, Raman Spectroscopy, BET-BJH, NH3-TPD, XPS, and TEM methods. The product sulfur content was measured by the ICP-OES while the product was evaluated using FTIR and 1H NMR analyses. All experimental stages were designed using Design-Expert software. High BET area, acidity, uniform particle size, and Co-promoter played key roles in this... 

Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 is considered as a promising strategy for production of a wide range of renewable hydrocarbon fuels by solar energy. In this investigation, a series of Ni and Bi doped TiO2 catalysts with different Ni and Bi contents were synthesized by the conventional sol-gel method and tested for CO2 photoreduction under visible light irradiation. Synthesized nano-photo-catalysts were characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM, DRS, PL, FTIR and BET analyses. BET results indicated that the doping of Ni or/and Bi in the TiO2 framework resulted in BET specific surface area increment with respect to pure TiO2. DRS analysis showed that Ni doped TiO2, Bi doped TiO2, and co-doped samples...