Sharif Digital Repository

This chapter is dedicated to the surface properties of mixed protein/surfactant adsorption layers, formed by two different experimental approaches, i.e. by sequential and simultaneous adsorption, respectively. A special modification of a drop profile analysis tensiometer, consisting of a coaxial double capillary, provides a unique protocol for studies of mixed surface layers formed by sequential adsorption of the individual components in addition to the traditional simultaneous adsorption from their mixed solution. A CFD simulation allowed to optimize the drop exchange process performed with the special double capillary arrangement. The experiments show that properties of sequentially formed... 

Because of the recent frequent observations of major dust storms in southwestern cities in Iran such as Ahvaz, and the importance of the ionic composition of particulate matters regarding their health effects, source apportionment, etc., the present work was conducted aiming at characterizing the ionic composition of total suspended particles (TSP) and particles on the order of ∼10 μm or less (PM10) during dust storms in Ahvaz in April-September 2010. TSP and PM10 samples were collected and their ionic compositions were determined using an ion chromatography. Mean concentrations of TSP and PM10 were 1,481.5 and 1,072.9 μg/m 3, respectively. Particle concentrations during the Middle Eastern... 

In the present study, photo-Fenton degradation of catechol from aqueous solution was carried out using UV light and iron ions (Fe2+) as activators of persulfate (PS). Catechol degradation from solution was studied under different experimental variables such as solution pH (2.0–10.0), iron dosages (0.1–0.5 g/L), persulfate loadings (1.0–5.0 mM), initial catechol concentrations (20–100 mg/L) and scavengers (TBA and IPA). The comparative study of catechol removal showed that among the applied approaches, the order of degradation of catechol is as follows: PS/Fe2 +/UV > PS/Fe2 + > UV/PS > PS > UV. Furthermore, higher catechol degradation was observed with increasing iron dosage and PS... 

The oxidation of ferrous iron (Fe2+) in solution using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans has industrial applications exclusively in the regeneration of ferric iron (Fe3+) as an oxidizing agent for the removal of hydrogen sulfide from waste gases, desulfurization of coal, leaching of non-ferrous metallic sulfides and treatment of acid mine drainage. The aim of this investigation was to increase the bio-oxidation rate of ferrous sulfate by using immobilized cells. Rate of Fe2+ oxidation was determined in a packed-bed bioreactor configuration with monolithic particles being used as support material. Biooxidation of ferrous iron by immobilized cells was investigated in repeated batch culture and... 

The oxidation of ferrous iron in solution using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans has industrial applications in the regeneration of ferric iron as an oxidant agent for the removal of hydrogen sulfide from waste gases, desulphurization of coal, leaching of non-ferrous metallic sulfides and treatment of acid mine drainage. The aim of this attempt was to increase the biooxidation rate of ferrous sulfate by using immobilized cells. Rate of ferrous iron oxidation was determined in a packed-bed reactor configuration with low density polyethylene (LDPE) particles as support material in order to find the most practical system for scale-up. The present work studies the influence of basic parameters on... 

The prediction of mass-transfer rates into and from moving drops in the liquid-liquid systems has usually used the well-known Whitman two-film theory approach. According to the latter, the total resistance to mass transfer resides on each side of the interface and is described by the individual film mass-transfer coefficients for the continuous and dispersed phases in the absence of surface-active agents (contaminants). In the present work, the same approach has been used to model the excess mass-transfer resistance exerted by surface-active agents in the continuous phase. To achieve this goal, an experimental investigation has been conducted on the mass transfer into and from single drops... 

The immobilization of cellulase onto non-porous ultrafine silica particles was studied. Cellulase was extracted from a Trichoderma reesei culture after partial purification with ammonium sulfate (pH = 5.0), which was then immobilized onto non-porous ultrafine silica particles, with or without the use of glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent. Cellulase was immobilized by adsorption onto ultrafine silica particles efficiently, as well as by covalent cross-linking with glutaraldehysde. Increasing the concentration of the free form of enzyme increased the amount of immobilized cellulase. The maximum enzyme immobilization happened at the free enzyme concentration of 0.48 mg/ml. In general, the... 

The effect of up velocity and influent COD concentration on the activity of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in UASB reactors is discussed. To study these effects, four UASB reactors were built and utilized in parallel. Examinations were carried out in two different concentrations of molasses (500 mg COD/l and 1000 mg COD/l) and four different upward flow velocities. It was observed that at velocities greater than 1 m/h, SRB bacteria were easily washed out from the reactors due to lower density and lack of ability to form dense and firm granules. It was found that in low-strength wastewaters with a COD to sulphate ratio of 2, an upward velocity in the range of 1.5-2.5 m/h could be... 

Colloidal Gas Aphron (CGA) are finding increasing application in fields of science and engineering because of their distinctive characteristic. As interest in the application of CGA based fluids grows and in order to select the best procedure for using them in successful petroleum engineering operations, there is a need to gain a better understanding of the factors that affect their properties and behavior. This article discusses the rheological characterization, stability analysis and filtration properties of CGA based fluids for three bio-polymers and two ionic surfactant. The stability and filtration analysis were investigated with the static drain rate technique and API filtration tests,... 

In this work, a reliable dimensionless correlation is proposed for prediction of permeability reduction rate in porous media, which is verified by experimental data obtained in this work in glass bead and sand pack as well as the core data from the literature. Although this correlation is based on the data which were obtained in our work in glass bead and sand-packed media at low pressure, it shows considerable flexibility to match with the extracted data for sandstone cores at high pressure, various flow rates, different temperatures and concentrations of calcium, and sulfate ions in brine solutions. In addition, a novel relationship for predicting the rate of precipitation of CaSO4 in... 

In this research, the influence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), pH, substrate finishing, and annealing temperature on the surface morphology and hardness of the electroless nickel phosphorus (ENi-P) coatings were studied. Taguchi's experimental design method was used. Parameters selected in three levels and L9 from orthogonal robust array design were employed. Surface roughnesses of the deposits were measured using a stylus instrument. Scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction analysis were implemented to study surface morphologies and phase composition, respectively. Microhardness of the ENi-P deposits was measured using a microhardness tester at three trials... 

Partial purification of plant peroxidase from turnip (Brassica rapa) was optimized. Aqueous two phase system and precipitation by ammonium sulfate (as two parallel purification methods) were used. Polyethylene glycol/ammonium sulfate/NaCl (25:7:3%, w/v) system followed by gel-filtration chromatography gave a purification factor of about 36 fold. On the other hand, ammonium sulfate precipitation (60-80% deg) followed by gel filtration gave only about 13 purification fold. Hence, the aqueous two-phase system was more efficient and useful method as a primary purification step since it was less laborious, less time-consuming, and led to more purification factor. The partially purified turnip... 

The Cu-0.5Co/WC nano-composite coating was synthesized on CP-copper substrate using Direct Current (DC) electrodeposition method. In this work, it was tried to increase the hardness of surface without considerable degradation of copper's particular physical properties such as electrical conductivity. The effect of current density on microstructural homogeneity, hardness, fracture toughness, and electrochemical behavior of coating was investigated. The copper plates with the purity of 99.99% were used as electrodes. The electrolyte consists of tungsten carbide particles (30 g/l), copper sulfate (200 g/l), sulfuric acid (50 g/l), cobalt sulfate (50 g/l), and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) (0.3... 

The main purpose of this research work is to investigate the effect of nickel as metal dopant on the morphology and photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanotube arrays synthesized in the organic electrolyte by anodizing process containing sodium carbonate as an additive (TNAS). In order to characterize the synthesized nanotubes, various analyses such as FESEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS, DRS, and EIS were applied. The results of XPS and FTIR tests evaluate the participation of sodium (Na), nickel (Ni), and carbon (C) in the lattice of nanotubes as dopants. According to the DRS and UV-visible tests results, the band gap energy of TiO2 nanotube arrays decreases from 3.20 to ~ 2.64 eV as well as the absorption... 

We have fabricated and characterised colloidal silver nanoparticles by the electrical arc discharge method in DI water. Size and optical properties of the silver nanoparticles were studied versus different arc currents. Optical absorption indicates a plasmonic peak at 392 nm for 10 A which increases to 398 nm for 20 A arc current. This reveals that by raising the arc current the size of the nanoparticles increases. Optical absorption of silver nanoparticles after 3 weeks shows precipitation of them in a water medium. The effect of different surfactant and stabilizer concentrations such as cethyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), sodium citrate, sodium dodecyl... 

In this study, the inclusion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes as the second phase in the hydroxyapatite matrix, in order to improve the mechanical strength, has been performed via the sol-gel process. The stability of carbon nanotube sol with the changes of pH and dispersant values (sodium dodecyl sulfate) was evaluated by zeta potential analysis. The results indicated that synthesis of hydroxyapatite particles in the presence of the carbon nanotubes had the best result in homogenization of the carbon nanotube dispersion and faster crystallization of hydroxyapatite. The crystallization of hydroxyapatite phase was investigated with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction... 

Inorganic scale deposition has been found to affect many industrial processes, including water injection into the oil reservoirs. The incompatibility of high sulfate ion content of seawater with formation water containing calcium ions results in formation damage and production decline. In this study, several simultaneous techniques are utilized for qualitative and quantitative analyses of calcium sulfate scale to get more insight into the formation damage during smart water flooding at micro and nanoscales. In the experimental section, calcium sulfate deposition due to the mixing of the formation water and seawater samples was investigated using the dynamic quartz crystal microbalance... 

The petroleum industry suffers from reservoir souring phenomena, which has negative impacts on production facilities, health, and environment. Injection of incompatible water into the reservoir (waterflooding), which is considered as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method, is one of the most common causes of reservoir souring. In general, injected brine, especially seawater, contains high amounts of sulfate ion (SO42−). A high concentration of sulfate in the presence of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) leads to the microbial reservoir souring. During this phenomenon, sulfide, specifically hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) appears in the producing fluid of the reservoir. In this paper, a coupled... 

A new method based on the combination of magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) and spectrofluorimetric determination was developed for isolation and preconcentration of fluoxetine form aquatic and biological samples using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) coated Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) as a sorbent. The unique properties of Fe 3O 4 NPs including high surface area and strong magnetism were utilized effectively in the MSPE process. Effect of different parameters influencing the extraction efficiency of fluoxetine including the amount of Fe 3O 4 and SDS, pH value, sample volume, extraction time, desorption solvent and time were optimized. Under optimized condition, the method was successfully...