Sharif Digital Repository

Nanofiber membranes were fabricated by electrospinning poly(vinylidene fluoride). The electrospun nanofiber membranes were further modified by grafting of acrylic acid (AA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) over the surfaces of the membranes. Plasma AA graft was attempted only, and the results indicated the partial membrane pore filling with grafted AA. For MAA grafting, chemically induced polymerization using benzoyl peroxide and hydrogen peroxide was attempted. The combination of plasma and chemically induced MAA graft polymerization was also attempted. The membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and static contact angle (SCA)... 

Micro Arc Oxidation (MAO) process was utilized to fabricate nano bioceramic TiO 2-hydroxyapatite coatings on titanium substrates. Samples were produced in electrolytes contained 1 g/l β-glycerophosphate and 5, 10 and 15 g/l calcium acetate for 3, 6 and 10 min at 350 V. The techniques including XRD, XPS, SEM, FESEM and EDX were employed to study the effect of processing parameters. Hydroxyapatite, anatase, α-tri calcium phosphate and calcium titanate phases as well as 30-60 nm-size crystals were detected in the coating layer. It was also observed that the pore volume would increase by increasing the electrolyte concentration. The growth time was also found to influence the total pore volume.... 

Pore network modeling of porous media has this advantage that can consider the pore structure incorporating any desired details, but it has not been studied sufficiently. In addition, most studies are limited to mathematical modeling only which need validation. In the present study, this approach was applied to hydrogen separation from syngas by nanoporous ceramic membrane to predict the membrane permeance theoretically based on its pore structure. Gas transport through nanoporous membrane was modeled with the aim of a 2D network model. A dusty gas model was used for gas transport in the individual pores. Model validation showed that the model predictions are in good agreement with the... 

Coke deposition mechanism on a commercial Pt-Re/γ-Al 2O3 naphtha reforming catalyst was studied. A used catalyst that was in industrial reforming operation for 28 months, as well as the fresh catalyst of the unit were characterized using XRD, XRF, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption analyses. Carbon and sulfur contents of the fresh and the used catalysts were determined using Leco combustion analyzer. The pore size distributions (PSD) of the fresh and the used reforming catalysts were determined using BJH and Comparison Plot methods. The Comparison Plot method produced the most reasonable PSDs for the catalysts. Through comparison of the PSDs of the fresh and the used catalysts, it was... 

Microscopic visualization of a porous medium can provide valuable information to enhance understanding of pore-scale transport phenomena. In this work, a novel and unique approach is provided to combine experimentally measured pore-size distribution with theoretical statistical analysis to predict longitudinal and transverse dispersion coefficients. The approach presented can be easily extended to predict other fluid-flow parameters through porous media, such as permeability, and capillary pressure. Here, a micromodel is considered as a porous medium. The grains and pores of the micromodel are nonuniform in size, shape, and distribution. The pore-size distribution, as well as pore-length... 

Clarification of rough nonalcoholic beer using microfiltration as an alternative to conventional filtration with filter aids presents scientific and technical challenges for the brewing industry. An experimental pilot plant was used to evaluate the permeability and selectivity of polymeric membranes in the clarification process. Cellulose acetate (CA) with pore sizes of 0.2, 0.45, 0.8, and 1.2 μm, together with cellulose nitrate (CN), nylon (NY), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with a pore size of 0.45 μm, were used at transmembrane pressures (TMP) of 1.0 and 2.0 bar. The data corroborated that the flux values of the CA, CN, and NY membranes were almost the same and reduced drastically,... 

A novel combination of discontinuous molecular dynamics and the Langevin equation, together with an intermediate-resolution model of proteins, is used to carry out long (several microsecond) simulations in order to study transport of proteins in nanopores. We simulated single-domain proteins with the α-helical native structure. Both attractive and repulsive interaction potentials between the proteins and the pores' walls are considered. The diffusivity D of the proteins is computed not only under the bulk conditions but also as a function of their "length" (the number of the amino-acid groups), temperature T, pore size, and interaction potentials with the walls. Compared with the... 

In this work a glass micromodel which its grains and pores are non-uniform in size shape and distribution is considered as porous medium. A two-dimensional random network modė, of micromodel with non-uniform pores has been constructed. The non-uniformity of porous model is achieved by assigning parametric distribution functions to pores throat and pores length, which was measured using image analysis technique. Statically derived expressions have been used for prediction of macroscopic properties of porous model including: dispersion coefficients, permeability-porosity ratio and capillary pressure. The results confirmed that predicted transport properties are in good agreement with the... 

Discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations, together with the protein intermediate resolution model, an intermediate-resolution model of proteins, are used to carry out several microsecond-long simulations and study folding transition and stability of α -de novo-designed proteins in slit nanopores. Both attractive and repulsive interaction potentials between the proteins and the pore walls are considered. Near the folding temperature Tf and in the presence of the attractive potential, the proteins undergo a repeating sequence of folding/partially folding/unfolding transitions, with Tf decreasing with decreasing pore sizes. The unfolded states may even be completely adsorbed on the pore's... 

To describe immobilized cells in porous microcapsule membranes with straight pores, a novel model called corrugated parallel bundle model (CPBM) was utilized. In this model, a network was developed with 10 main pores each composing 10 pore elements. Cell growth kinetic in the network was examined using non-structural models. Effectiveness factor and pore plugging time were calculated by solving reaction-diffusion equation set via finite difference method. The findings revealed that diffusion coefficient for lower order reactions will create a lesser impact on the reduction of effectiveness factor. These findings also indicated that the use of such supporting carrier for cell immobilization... 

Microscopic Visualization of the porous media can provide valuable information to enhance understanding of pore-scale transport phenomena. Here, a micromodel which its grains and pores are non-uniform in size, shape and distribution is considered as porous medium. The pore size distribution as well as pore length distribution was extracted by applying an image analysis technique. A two-dimensional random network model of the micromodel has been constructed which the nonuniformity is considered by assigning measured distribution functions. The random particle method was applied for correlating and predicting dispersion coefficients based on probabilistic approaches. Statistical derivations... 

A theoretical and experimental study was conducted to accurately determine the amount of adsorption and desorption of methane by various Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) under different physical conditions. To carry out the experiments, the volumetric method was used up to 500 psia at constant temperature of 25 °C. In these experiments, adsorption as well as desorption capacities of four different GAC in the adsorption of methane, the major constituent of natural gas, at various equilibrium pressures and a constant temperature were studied. Also, various adsorption isotherm models were used to model the experimental data collected from the experiments. The accuracy of the results obtained... 

Capillary pressure curves, which have been employed for a long period of time by researchers interested in pore size distribution, are commonly obtained from experimental measurements. The dynamic capillary pressure that influences the flow is affected by many factors including the pore size characteristics and pore scale dynamics. Hence, it is important to investigate the variation of the estimated pore size distribution with capillary number. In this study, a glass type micromodel is considered as the porous media sample. A parametric probability density function is proposed to express the pore size distribution of the porous model, which is also measured using an image analysis technique.... 

TiO2 nanofibres were prepared using a templating method with tetraisopropylorthotitanate (TiPT) as a precursor. The preparation comprises liquid phase deposition on cellulose fibres followed by thermal removal of the cellulose template. The obtained TiO2 fibrous substance consists of micron-size fibres with a microstructure of nanofibres. It was demonstrated that nanofibres are basically formed through the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles and nanorods into chain structures during the thermal treatment process. The measured surface area of the TiO2 fibres was about 250 m2 g-1. It was shown that the pore size distribution is multi-scale and a fractal morphology was demonstrated with two... 

Real porous media even though seemingly homogenous and isotropic are most often nonuniform, and the nonuniformity may affect the macroscopic properties of porous media such as permeability, capillary pressure which is a result of the tortuous and circuitous nature of the flow paths in medium. In this study a glass type micromodel is considered as a porous media sample. A four parametric probability density function are used to express pore throat size, pore body size and pores length distributions which are measured using image analysis technique of porous model. The statistical models parameters are calculated by fitting the statistical model to the measured data of pore throat pore body... 

Particle capture at porous media in cross-flow microfiltration is studied to investigate permeability reduction as a function of membrane pore size and particle size distribution. A new model in pore scale and its pertinent mathematical expressions, which consider pore and particle size distribution, are provided. Permeability reduction of the membrane because of size exclusion during particulate suspension flow was predicted using the developed model. It is assumed that the size exclusion is the dominant mechanism of particle retention causes pore blocking and permeability reduction in the porous media.The exact analytical solution of the stochastic model for size exclusion is used to... 

A totally computerized image processing program package is developed to analyze the SEM images of membrane surface and cross-section. Pore size distribution and porosity of the fabricated membranes are determined using the proposed image processing procedure. Furthermore, effect of coagulation bath temperature on the morphology and mechanical properties (such as tensile strength, strain break, tensile energy absorbent, and tensile stiffness) of Polysulfone (PSf) membranes are investigated. The results reveal that the mechanical properties are higher when N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is used as solvent. Also, an increase in the coagulation bath temperature caused a monotonous increase in the... 

Poly(vinyl alcohol)-polyethylene glycol, PVA-PEG, blended membrane were prepared using supercritical fluid assisted phase-inversion method, in which scCO2 was used as the anti-solvent. Poly(vinyl alcohol) was utilized as the main polymer, polyethylene glycol as the additive, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as the solvent of these polymers. Taguchi method was used to investigate the effect of some operating parameters on the morphology of the membranes. The L16 orthogonal array was selected under the following conditions: pressure (100, 135, 165 and 200 bar), temperature (40, 45, 50 and 55°C) and PEG weight percent (0, 0.33, 0.66, and 1%). Total polymer concentration of solutions in all...