Sharif Digital Repository

Long-term deactivation of a commercial CoMoγ-Al2O3 catalyst used in the hydrodesulfurization of a naphtha stream was studied using 35 months of operating data of an industrial HDS fixed bed reactor. The major sulfur-containing species of the naphtha feed was identified as 2-ethyl-4-methylthiophene (2E4MT) based on GC-MS analysis. The characterization of the industrial catalysts was performed by BET, XRD, XRF, and HCN Leco analyses. The reaction rate constant of the gas-phase hydrodesulfurization reaction was calculated by fitting the industrial reactor conversion data to the Hougen-Watson rate equation, assuming that the surface reaction between the sulfur-containing species and adsorbed... 

In this paper, a new visco-hyperelastic constitutive law for describing the rate dependent behavior of foams is proposed. The proposed model was based on a phenomenological Zener model: a hyperelastic equilibrium spring, which describes the steady-state, long-term response, parallel to a Maxwell element, which captures the rate-dependency. A nonlinear viscous damper connected in series to a hyperelastic intermediate spring, controls the rate-dependency of the Maxwell element. Therefore, the stress is the sum of equilibrium stress on the equilibrium spring and overstress on the intermediate spring. In hyperelastic theory stress is not calculated directly as in the case of small-strain, linear... 

A carbon paste electrode, modified with 2, 2″-[1,7- hepthandiylbis(nitriloethylidyne)]-bis-hydroquinone and TiO 2 nanoparticles, was used for the simultaneous determination of dopamine (DA), uric acid (UA), and l-cysteine. The study was carried out by using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and square wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques. Some kinetic parameters such as the electron transfer coefficient (α) and heterogeneous rate constant (k s) were also determined for the DA oxidation. A dynamic range of 8.0-1400 μM, with the detection limit of 8.4∈×∈10 -7 M for DA, was obtained using SWV (pH∈=∈7.0). The prepared electrode was successfully applied for the determination of DA, UA, and... 

Mononuclear nonheme iron containing systems are versatile and vital oxidants of substrate hydroxylation reactions in many biosystems, whereby the rate constant of hydroxylation correlates with the strength of the C-H bond that is broken in the process. The thermodynamic reason behind these correlations, however, has never been established. In this work results of a series of density functional theory calculations of substrate hydroxylation by a mononuclear nonheme iron(IV)-oxo oxidant with a 2 His/ 1Asp structural motif analogous to aketoglutarate dependent dioxygenases are presented. The calculations show that these oxidants are very efficient and able to hydroxylate strong C-H bonds,... 

In this paper, the interactions of cobalt(III) tetradentate Schiff-base complexes, [Co(S-MeO-salophen)]ClO4, (1), [Co(5-NO 2-salophen)]ClO4, (2), and [Co(5-Br-salophen)]ClO 4, (3), with dopamine, an important neurotransmitter, have been investigated. The formation and kinetic constants for complex formation of [Co(3-MeO-salophen)]ClO4, (1), with dopamine were determined spectrophotometrically in H2O/EtOH solution (4:1) at 30°C by using the Benesi-Hildbrand and Guggenheim equations, respectively. The stoichiometry has been found to be 1:1. The rate and equilibrium constants for the coordination of dopamine to (Co(3-MeO-salophen)]ClO4 were found to be 0.0053 min-1 and 1600 dm3 mol-1,... 

Synchronous heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation of cyclohexene and acetone, catalyzed by Pt/Al2O3, was carried out in solutions of 2-hydroxy ethylammonium formate (a room temperature ionic liquid, RTIL) with ethanol and propan-1-ol at 25 °C. Rate constants and selectivity of the reaction (relative to cyclohexene hydrogenation) increase with mole fraction of the ionic liquid (IL). The reactants tendency to the catalyst surface increases by addition of the ionic liquid and thus the reaction rate increases, especially for cyclohexene hydrogenation. Consequently the selectivity to cyclohexene hydrogenation was increased. Single-parameter correlations of log k vs. π* (dipolarity/polarizibility)... 

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... 

Transdermal drug delivery systems have overcome many limitations of other drug administration routes, such as injection pain and first-pass metabolism following oral route, although transdermal drug delivery systems are limited to drugs with low molecular weight. Hence, new emerging technology allowing high molecular weight drug delivery across the skin—known as ‘microneedles’—has been developed, which creates microchannels that facilitate drug delivery. In this report, drug-loaded degradable conic microneedles are modeled to characterize the degradation rate and drug release profile. Since a lot of data are available for polylactic acid-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) degradation in the literature,... 

In this work, the role of dissolved oxygen in the solar and the photo-Fenton-mediated E. coli inactivation process was put under scrutiny. The effect of transient species that were produced in the presence of various natural organic matter isolates (NOM), namely Suwannee River (SR) NOM, Nordic Reservoir (NR) NOM, SR Humic acid (SRHA), and SR Fulvic acid (SRFA) was studied in detail. The role of 1 O2 in this reaction was systematically evaluated by modifying the O2 concentration (N2/O2 purging) and the matrix composition (10, 50, and 100% deuterium oxide (D2O) v/v). In the presence of NOM, 1 O2 was generated and the enhancement of E. coli inactivation rate due to charge transfer from triplet... 

Recently, aluminum titanate (Al2TiO5)-based nanostructures have been proved to serve as an efficient photocatalytic material with satisfactory photodegradation capacity. In this study, the citrate sol–gel method was used to synthesize these nanostructures and inspect the significant impacts of nitrogen-doping-originated crystalline defects on their photocatalytic performance in some details for the first time. The results indicated that the penetration of nitrogen atoms into AT crystal lattice, depending on the nitriding time and temperature, can induce a great deal of the residual stress and result in propagating the existing cracks and breaking down the particles. The XPS and FTIR results... 

In the present study, the ACF-TiO2 catalyst was synthesised and used as a catalyst for the destruction of toxic cyanide in both synthetic and real industrial wastewaters. The ACF-TiO2 catalyst was found to be micro-porous with the BET surface area of 163 m2/g. The effect of different operational parameters such as catalyst concentration, cyanide concentration, operation time, and ozone concentration were target parameters in the present study. The findings show that 500 mg/L of catalyst is the optimum value for the photocatalytical process to completely oxidise 25 mg/L of cyanide within 10 min. While it was found that 300 mg/L of catalyst in the presence of 200 mg/h ozone is enough to remove... 

The oxidation-precipitation method was used for the synthesis of Fe3O4/AC. The characterization of the catalyst was accomplished by XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, BET, and VSM techniques. The obtained results indicated that magnetite nanoparticles were successfully prepared with cubic spinel structures and uniform distribution on the surface of activated carbon by the oxidation-precipitation method. The effect of operating parameters was evaluated to determine the optimum operating condition for the electro-Fenton (EF) removal of catechol as a phenolic pollutant model. At the optimum operating conditions (pH 3, Fe3O4/AC: 0.9 g L−1, Catechol: 8.0 × 10−4mol L−1 at I: 120 mA), the catechol and COD removal... 

Therapeutic fragmented antibodies show a poor pharmacokinetic profile that leads to frequent high-dose administration. In the current study, for the first time, a novel proline, alanine, serine (PAS) repeat sequence called PAS#208 was designed to extend the plasma half-life of a nanosized anti-vascular endothelial growth factor-A single-domain antibody. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, circular dichroism, dynamic light scattering, and electrophoretic light scattering were used to assess the physicochemical properties of the newly designed PAS sequence. The effect of PAS#208 on the biologic activity of a single-domain antibody was studied using an in vitro proliferation assay. The... 

A novel efficient and cost-effective heterogeneous catalyst for the production of biodiesel from transesterification of sunflower oil was prepared through the impregnation of K2CO3 upon the Talc material. The physicochemical features of the catalyst were studied through several characterization analyses. The effect of the K2CO3 loading was investigated by comparing the catalytic activity of various prepared catalysts. Moreover, the effect of the calcination temperature upon the catalytic activity was examined. To maximize the yield of the produced biodiesel fuel, reaction variables such as the reaction time and temperature, catalyst concentration, and methanol: oil molar ratio were... 

In this article, the synthesis, characterization, and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements are reported for ferrocene-terminated oligophenyleneimine (OPI_Fc) and ferrocene-terminated conjugation-broken oligophenyleneimine (CB-OPI_Fc) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in two different electrolytes, namely, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium-bis (trifluoromethyl-sulfonyl) imide (EMITFSI) ionic liquid and tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (Bu4NPF6) in acetonitrile (0.1 M solution). The SAMs were synthesized on Au surfaces by the sequential imine condensation reactions. CV was used to investigate the kinetics of electron transfer (ET) to the ferrocene, and it was observed that the standard ET rate... 

Nickel and nickel-copper alloy modified glassy carbon electrodes (GC/Ni and GC/NiCu) prepared by galvanostatic deposition were examined for their redox process and electrocatalytic activities towards the oxidation of methanol in alkaline solutions. The methods of cyclic voltammetery (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA) were employed. The cyclic voltammogram of NiCu alloy demonstrates the formation of β/β crystallographic forms of the nickel oxyhydroxide under prolonged repetitive potential cycling in alkaline solution. In CV studies, in the presence of methanol NiCu alloy modified electrode shows a significantly higher response for methanol oxidation. The peak current of the oxidation of nickel... 

A numerical model for the deposition of silicon nitride using silane and ammonia mixture in a radio frequency plasma reactor has been developed. Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process is simulated by combined analysis for the glow discharge, fluid flow and chemical reactions. The main goal is to investigate the effect of variations of the process parameters on the deposition rate, and uniformity of the resulting layer. The approach used is based on the theoretical partial differential equation models, without any empirical approximation of the critical data being used. Owing to the fact that the relevant equations are highly nonlinear, the discretization method is of great... 

The second-order rate constants for cycloaddition reaction of cyclopentadiene with naphthoquinone were determined spectrophotometrically in various compositions of 1-(1-butyl)-3-methylimidazolium terafluoroborate ([bmim]BF4) with water and methanol at 25°C. Rate constants of the reaction in pure solvents are in the order of water > [bmim]BF 4 > methanol. Rate constants of the reaction decrease sharply with mole fraction of the ionic liquid in aqueous solutions and increase slightly to a maximum in alcoholic mixtures. Multi-parameter correlation of logk 2 versus solute-solvent interaction parameters demonstrated that solvophobicity parameter (Sp), hydrogen-bond donor acidity (α) and... 

Corrosion of mild steel in aqueous solutions containing hydrogen sulphide was modelled under the condition that an iron sulphide film was formed on the steel surface. In the present model, the iron sulphide forms on the steel surface as a result of a solid state reaction between iron and hydrogen sulphide which has several steps. First a very thin film of iron sulphide nucleates on the steel surface. Then, due to further growth of the initial thin layer, a more porous layer of iron sulphide forms on the initial film. In the present model, it is assumed that mass transfer through the thin iron sulphide layer (i.e. adjacent to the steel substrate) controls the corrosion rate of steel in H 2S... 

A model for prediction of corrosion of mild steel in aqueous solutions containing carbon dioxide is proposed. In this model, formation of protective corrosion product is not yet considered, species concentration at the surface was calculated by using molecular diffusion phenomena and the diffusion equations were solved using the finite difference method. Calculated electrochemical currents at the steel surface may be used to determine the corrosion rate. The model was verified experimentally under atmospheric pressure and the effect of parameters, such as liquid velocity and pH, was investigated. The model can predict the electrochemical reaction rates when they were controlled by diffusion...