Sharif Digital Repository

Azlactones have been prepared via Erlenmeyer synthesis from aromatic aldehydes and hippuric acid using Fe 2O 3 nanoparticles under ultrasonic irradiation. Short reaction times, easy and quick isolation of the products, and excellent yields are the main advantages of this procedure  

We report the development of a metastasis-on-a-chip platform to model and track hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)–bone metastasis and to analyze the inhibitory effect of an herb-based compound, thymoquinone (TQ), in hindering the migration of liver cancer cells into the bone compartment. The bioreactor consisted of two chambers, one accommodating encapsulated HepG2 cells and one bone-mimetic niche containing hydroxyapatite (HAp). Above these chambers, a microporous membrane was placed to resemble the vascular barrier, where medium was circulated over the membrane. It was observed that the liver cancer cells proliferated inside the tumor microtissue and disseminated from the HCC chamber to the... 

Fe3O4@SiO2-Ag catalyst was found to be highly active and selective in the N-alkylation of amines with a variety of aromatic and linear alcohols. The heterogeneous nature of the Fe3O4@SiO2-Ag catalyst allows easy recovery and regeneration by applying an external magnet for six subsequent reaction cycles. The prepared catalyst was characterized using electron microscopy techniques, X-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometry and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd  

An Al2O3/Si3N4 nanocomposite coating was successfully fabricated on commercial aluminum alloy. Hardness measurements, polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were employed to study the mechanical and corrosion behaviors of the coatings. Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were utilized to characterize the surface morphology and phase composition of the coatings. Also, coatings abrasive wear properties were evaluated with a modified ASTM G105 standard. FE-SEM image, EDS and XRD analysis revealed the presence of Si3N4 in the coating. Furthermore, the results showed hardness of... 

Introduction: One of the biggest impacts that the nanotechnology has made on medicine and biology, has been in the area of drug delivery systems (DDSs). Many drugs suffer from serious problems concerning insolubility, instability in biological environments, poor uptake into cells and tissues, sub-optimal selectivity for targets and unwanted side effects. Nanocarriers can be designed as DDSs to overcome many of these drawbacks. One of the most versatile building blocks to prepare these nanocarriers is the ubiquitous, readily available and inexpensive protein, serum albumin. Areas covered: This review covers the use of different types of albumin (human, bovine, rat, and chicken egg) to prepare... 

We propose a dielectric structure which focuses laser light well beyond the diffraction limit and thus considerably enhances the exerted optical trapping force upon dielectric nanoparticles. Although the structure supports a Fabry–Perot resonance, it actually acts as a nanoantenna in that the role of the resonance is to funnel the laser light into the structure. In comparison with the lens illuminating the structure, the proposed structure offers roughly a 10,000-fold enhancement in the trapping force—part of this enhancement comes from an 80-fold enhancement in the field intensity, whereas the remaining comes from a 130-fold enhancement in the normalized gradient of the field intensity... 

We investigate the potential of plasmonic resonance in metal nanocomposite materials for the design of photonic crystal all optical switches by numerical methods. We study the absorption effect of the plasmonic resonance on the Fano resonances of one dimensional photonic crystal slabs covered by a metal nanocomposite layer. It is shown that the absorption reduces the contrast of the Fano resonances. However, for adequate metal nanoparticle concentrations it is possible to achieve both sufficiently sharp Fano resonance and strong Kerr nonlinearity, which provides a suitable condition for the design of high contrast and low threshold switches  

A mathematical model was developed to describe the performance of nanoparticulate mixed oxide pseudocapacitors based on RuO 2-MO 2 (M being another suitable transition metal) under galvanostatic charge/discharge regime. Both double layer and faradaic processes were taken into account. The effects of the active material's particle size and composition were examined. Furthermore, the influence of discharge current on the extents of double layer and faradaic contributions was analyzed. The model analysis showed that the energy density declined upon increasing the volume fraction of larger particles. © 2008 Springer-Verlag  

Our previously reported mathematical model for a mixed oxide nanoparticulate-based supercapacitor containing RuO2·xH2O and MO2·yH2O (M being another suitable transition metal) was analyzed. Both double-layer and faradaic processes responsible for charge/discharge were considered. The effects of the intrinsic factors, unit cell length, state of charge, and the exchange current densities of the electrochemical processes of the constituents on the performance of the model supercapacitor were clarified. Compensation effects where each constituent compensates the shortcomings of the other at specific conditions of discharge are analyzed in the light of the model  

In the present study, dual layers mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were prepared by incorporating aminated-Fe3O4 nanoparticles into the chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers over the polyethersulfone (PES) membrane for the removal of Cr(VI) and Pb(II) ions in batch adsorption and membrane processes. The synthesized aminated-Fe3O4 nanoparticles were characterized using XRD, FESEM and FTIR analysis. The morphology and roughness of membranes were determined using SEM, TEM and AFM analysis. The effect of adsorption operating parameters such as pH (2–7), contact time (0–60 min), initial concentration of metal ions (20–1000 mgL−1) and temperature (30–50 °C) on the Cr(VI) and Pb(II) ions sorption was... 

Mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) are promising candidates for carbon dioxide separation. However, their application is limited due to improper dispersion of fillers within the polymer matrix, poor interaction of fillers with polymer chains, and formation of defects and micro-voids at the interface of both phases, which all result in the decline of the gas separation performance of MMMs. In this work, we present a new method to overcome these challenges. To this end, a series of MMMs based on polyethersulfone (PES) as the continuous polymer matrix and MIL-53-derived MOFs as the dispersed filler were prepared. FTIR-ATR, XRD, TGA, FESEM, and N2 adsorption/desorption analyses were employed to... 

The current study develops a 3D constitutive model for photo-thermal sensitive hydrogels based on free energy decomposition. The hydrogel under study is PNIPAM network with copper chlorophyllin nanoparticle agents attached to the network. The effect of light intensity is considered as a rise in temperature since chlorophyllin nanoparticle agents absorb light irradiation and convert it to heat. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the effect of dissociation of these agents on the hydrogel’s free energy function; therefore, a term is added to the free energy function. After introducing the model, some problems, including the free swelling and uniaxial loading problems, are studied, and the... 

Computational methods to understand interactions in bio-complex systems are however limited to time-scales typically much shorter than in Nature. For example, on the nanoscale level, interactions between nanoparticles (NPs)/molecules/peptides and membranes are central in complex biomolecular processes such as membrane-coated NPs or cellular uptake. This can be remedied by the application of e.g. Jarzynski's equality where thermodynamic properties are extracted from non-equilibrium simulations. Although, the out of equilibrium work leads to non-conservative forces. We here propose a correction Pair Forces method, that removes these forces. Our proposed method is based on the calculation of... 

In this research, a modified, cost effective sol-gel procedure applied to synthesize BaTiO3 nanoparticles. XRD and electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) applied for microstructural characterization of powders. The obtained results showed that the type of precursors, their ratio and the hydrolysis conditions had a great effect on time, temperature and therefore the costs of the synthesis process. By selection, utilization of optimized precursor's type, hydrolysis conditions, fine cubic BaTiO3 nanoparticles were synthesized at low temperature and in short time span (1 h calcination at 800 °C). The proposed procedure seems to be more preferable for mass production. The result indicated that the... 

Molecular imaging (MI) can provide not only structural images utilizing temporal imaging techniques, but also functional and molecular data using a variety of newly developed imaging techniques. Nanotechnology’s application in MI has commanded a lot of attention in recent decades, and it has provided tremendous potential for imaging living subjects. In this study, D-glucosamine conjugated functionalized magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4-PEG-DG NPs) were prepared and studied as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. To evaluate their distribution, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is performed. Fe3O4 NPs are made using a well-known co-precipitation process... 

In this work, an electrochemical DNA biosensor, based on a dual signal amplified strategy by employing a polyaniline film and gold nanoparticles as a sensor platform and enzyme-linked as a label, for sensitive detection is presented. Firstly, polyaniline film and gold nanoparticles were progressively grown on graphite screen-printed electrode surface via electropolymerization and electrochemical deposition, respectively. The sensor was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry and impedance measurements. The polyaniline-gold nanocomposite modified electrodes were firstly modified with a mixed monolayer of a 17-mer thiol-tethered DNA probe and a spacer thiol,... 

Both experimental and numerical studies are unanimous for enhancing Nusselt number for forced convection of nanofluids with slight difference, but there is inconsistency for natural convection heat transfer of nanofluids. In this paper attempt is made to study the effects of nanoparticles migration on the natural convection behavior of nanofluids. For analysis, a mixture model is used by including important phenomena such as Brownian motion and thermophoresis effects. These two mechanisms are taken into account to compute the slip velocities between the base fluid and nanoparticles. The governing equations are solved numerically and good agreements are observed in comparison with... 

Third order nonlinear effects and its enhancement in gold nanostructures has been numerically studied. Analysis method is based on computationally solving nonlinear Maxwell's equations, considering dispersion behavior of permittivity described by Drude model and third order nonlinear susceptibility. Simulation is done by method of nonlinear finite difference time domain method, in which nonlinear equations of electric field are solved by Newton-Raphshon method. As the main outcomes of third order nonlinear susceptibility, four wave mixing and third harmonic generation terms are produced around gold nanostructures. Results of analysis on different geometries and structures show that third... 

An analytical model based on cohesive energy has been conducted to study the effects of edge, corner, and inward surface relaxation as varying parameters on melting temperature of nanoparticles. It is shown that taking into account the edge and corner (EC) atoms of nanoparticle, causes to drop melting temperature more, when compared to consider them the same as only surface atoms. This reduction is significant especially when the size of nanoparticle is below 10 nm. The results are supported by available experimental results of tin, lead and gold melting temperature (Tm). Finally, it is shown that inward relaxation increases melting temperature slightly  

Myocardial infarction is a major cause of death worldwide and remains a social and healthcare burden. Injectable hydrogels with the ability to locally deliver drugs or cells to the damaged area can revolutionize the treatment of heart diseases. Herein, we formulate a thermo-responsive and injectable hydrogel based on conjugated chitosan/poloxamers for cardiac repair. To tailor the mechanical properties and electrical signal transmission, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with an average diameter of 50 nm were physically bonded to oxidized bacterial nanocellulose fibers (OBC) and added to the thermosensitive hydrogel at the ratio of 1% w/v. The prepared hydrogels have a porous structure with open...