Sharif Digital Repository

A new magnetically separable nanocatalyst was successfully synthesized by immobilizing of vanadyl acetylacetonate complex, [VO(acac)2], onto silica coated magnetite nanoparticles previously functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (3-APTES) and reacted by 5-bromosalicylaldehyde to form Schiff base moiety. The obtained nanocatalyst was characterized by elemental analysis (CHN), FT-IR spectroscopy, Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Eventually, the resulting nanoparticles were used as catalyst for epoxidation of alkenes and... 

PbS quantum dots (QDs) have been extensively studied for photovoltaic applications, thanks to their facile and low-cost fabrication processing and interesting physical properties such as size dependent and tunable band gap. However, the performance of PbS QD-based solar cells is highly sensitive to the humidity level in the ambient air, which is a serious obstacle toward its practical applications. Although it has been previously revealed that oxygen doping of the hole transporting layer can mitigate the cause of this issue, the suggested methods to recover the device performance are time-consuming and relatively costly. Here, we report a low-power oxygen plasma treatment as a rapid and... 

During the last few decades, nanotechnology has established many essential applications in the biomedical field and in particular for cancer therapy. Not only can nanodelivery systems address the shortcomings of conventional chemotherapy such as limited stability, non-specific biodistribution and targeting, poor water solubility, low therapeutic indices, and severe toxic side effects, but some of them can also provide simultaneous combination of therapies and diagnostics. Among the various therapies, the combination of chemo- and photothermal therapy (CT-PTT) has demonstrated synergistic therapeutic efficacies with minimal side effects in several preclinical studies. In this regard,... 

In this paper, a combination of in-situ chemical synthesis and electrolysis methods was applied for the preparation of zinc oxide/graphene oxide quasi core-shell nanoparticles. Pure zinc oxide was also prepared using the same method at different temperatures. 100 °C was selected for synthesizing the ZnO/GO quasi core-shell (zinc oxide as a core and few layers of graphene oxide as a shell). The particle size was 15 ± 2 nm in all samples. In both processes, oxygen was the main reason for the connection between the core and the shell. XRD patterns also confirmed the formation of ZnO (with regular wurtzite structure) and ZnO/GO quasi core-shell structures. Raman spectroscopy results confirmed... 

Abstract: Photocatalysis using semiconductors has emerged as a promising wastewater treatment process to overcome the major challenges faced by conventional technologies. The advantages of ZnO nanomaterials over other semiconductors, and their structure-dependent properties, make them important building blocks in nanotechnology as multifunctional materials. Moreover, it has been confirmed that ZnO nanomaterials can exhibit high performance in photodegradation of organic dyes for treatment of industrial effluent. The wurtzite structure of ZnO contains polar and nonpolar planes; the low surface energy and thermodynamic stability of the nonpolar planes enable formation of one-dimensional (1D)... 

Hybrid composites of MIL-101(Cr) and Nanoporous Graphene with ratios in the range of 10–50% were prepared via hydrothermal synthesis method. This study deals with an experimental investigation on selective oxidation of H2S into elemental sulfur in the range of 200–270 °C, the catalyst activity and selectivity toward sulfur was studied. High-temperature reactor tests indicated that the MIL-101(Cr)–NPG50–Mo could be a promising candidate with conversion and selectivity of 100% and 99.5% at 200 °C. The MIL-101(Cr)–NPG50–Mo stability showed there were not any significant changes in physical properties, the activity was evaluated after 20 h which was completely stable without any changes  

Two-dimensional mesoporous carbon nitride and its highly efficient nanorod framework were prepared via hard-templating method. The obtained materials were fully characterized. The results showed that the samples structural ordering and morphology were similar to those of the parent silica templates; they had large pore volumes as well as high surface area structures. Carbon nitride carbocatalysts were used for H2S selective oxidation. The catalytic tests were carried out at 190, 210 and 230 °C in a fixed bed reactor. The obtained selectivity values for mesoporous carbon nitride rod and mesoporous carbon nitride toward elemental sulfur at 190 °C were 88.8% and 83%, respectively. Both samples... 

Tin sulfide (SnS2) has recently attracted considerable attention due to its layered structure that may form two dimensional morphologies. It is an n-type semiconductor with band gap and electron affinity similar to CdS and In2S3; therefore can be regarded as an alternative for these materials in thin film solar cells. Here, we synthesis of SnS2 nanoparticles with different morphology in different ratio of water-ethanol mixed solution by solvothermal method, and observe that more ethanol leads to large sheet like morphologies, while water based synthesis results in very small nanosheets. A challenge in wet deposition of device-quality thin films of SnS2 is the requirement for highly dispersed... 

Abstract : Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays were synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on stainless steel substrates coated by cobalt nanoparticles as catalyst. Morphological and elemental analyses conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) revealed that bamboo-like CNTs were blocked by Co nanoparticles at the tips. The fabricated nanotubes underwent functionalization by electrochemical oxidation in sulfuric acid, and the subsequent structural studies, as well as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed that the tips of functionalized CNTs were opened while oxygenated functional groups were... 

In this research, adsorption and photocatalytic degradation process were utilized to remove organic dye from wastewater. To accomplish that, a newly-designed ternary nanostructure based on Ag nanoparticles/ZnO nanorods/three-dimensional graphene network (Ag NPs/ZnO NRs/3DG) was prepared using a combined hydrothermal-photodeposition method. The three-dimensional structure of graphene hydrogel as a support for growth of ZnO nanorods was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). In addition, diameter of silver nanoparticles grown on the ZnO nanorods with the average aspect ratio of 5 was determined in the range of 30–80 nm by using transmission electron microscopy... 

An efficient protocol was developed for the nano CoCuFe2O4-catalyzed C-N and C-S bond formation. By this catalytic system, both amine and sulfide-based structural motifs were formed efficiently in aryl halide-free route. The amination reaction of phenyl boronic acid with various types of amines was conducted under ligand-free conditions, in ethanol as a green solvent at 60°C. Unsymmetrical diaryl/aryl alkyl sulfide synthesis via the coupling reaction of arylboronic acids with thiols was also conducted. The nano cobalt-copper ferrite was used as a heterogenous efficient, inexpensive, magnetically separable and recyclable catalyst that can be used for several cycles. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons,... 

Fast transfer of photoinduced electrons and subsequent slow electron-hole recombination in semiconductor heterostructures give rise to long-lived charge separation which is highly desirable for photocatalysis and photovoltaic applications. As a type II heterostructure, CdS/TiO2 nanocomposites extend the absorption edge of the light spectrum to the visible range and demonstrate effective charge separation, resulting in more efficient conversion of solar energy to chemical energy. This improvement in performance is partly explained by the fact that CdS/TiO2 is a type II semiconductor heterostructure and CdS has a smaller energy band gap than UV-active TiO2. Ultrafast transient absorption... 

Unidirectional current flow is at the heart of modern electronics, which has been conceived by making p–n junctions or Schottky barriers between different kinds of materials. Within such elements, however, synthesis of thin film lateral heterostructures has so far remained challenging. Here, a one-step simple synthesis of p-type, n-type, and metallic lateral heterostructures using bipolar electrodeposition (BPE) technique is reported. Molybdenum oxides and sulfides with gradient of oxygen and sulfur are deposited at a metallic substrate. A lateral heterostructure is achieved with electrical properties that change from p- to n-type semiconductor and then to metal by moving in the plane of the... 

CdS is conventionally used as the n-type buffer layer in chalcopyrite (CIG(S, Se)) and Kesterite (CZT(S, Se)) solar cells. CdS is toxic and there are wide attempts to find substitutes for it. Here, we suggest SnS2 as a possible alternative. SnS2 films were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), characterized to estimate carrier concentration and electron affinity values, and the obtained values were used to model a CZT(S, Se) solar cell. The experimental values of a benchmark CZT(S, Se) cell with efficiency of 12.3% were employed to obtain the density and energy position of defects in CZT(S, Se) and validating the model. We observed that SnS2 results in almost identical performance as... 

Oxido-peroxido W(VI)-histidine–MgAl-layered double hydroxide composite was prepared by using MgAl-layered double hydroxide as a host and oxido-peroxido W(VI)-histidine complex as a guest. The composite was characterized by XRD, IR, EDX,SEM and TEM techniques. This composite is tested for catalytic selective sulfoxidation reactions using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant showing good to moderate conversion along with high selectivity. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd  

We investigate the underlying physics of degradation/recovery of a metal/n-CdTe Schottcky junction under reverse or forward bias stressing conditions. We used Sah-Noyce-Shockley (SNS) theory to investigate if the swept of Fermi level pinning at different levels (under forward/reverse bias) is the origin of change in current-voltage characteristics of the device. This theory is based on Shockley-Read-Hall recombination within the depletion width and takes into account the interface defect levels. Fermi Level Pinning theory was primarily introduced by Ponpon and developed to thin film solar cells by Dharmadasa's group in Sheffield University-UK. The theory suggests that Fermi level pinning at... 

Three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (3D-rGO) structures decorated with CuO particles (GCu) are synthesized through a simple and scalable method for detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas. For characterization and investigation of porous structure various techniques were employed. Decorated 3D structures demonstrated higher sensitivity and selectivity in comparison to pure structure. Optimized structure for sensing was obtained through introducing different amounts of CuO. The GCu heterostructures containing 35 μmol of CuO powder demonstrated reproducible response of about 30% to the concentration of 10 ppm at room temperature, while complete recovery was obtained through heating to 150... 

Chalcostibite copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS2) micro- and nanoparticles with a different shape and size have been prepared by a new approach to hot injection route. In this method, sulfur in oleylamine (OLA) is employed as a sulfonating agent providing a simple route to control the shape and size of the particles, which enables the optimization of CuSbS2 for a variety of applications. The sulfur to metallic precursor ratio appears to be one of the most effective parameters along with the temperature and time for controlling the size and morphology of the particles. The growth mechanism study shows in addition to the CuSbS2 phase the presence of not previously observed intermediate phases... 

The design of 3-dimensional (3-D) nanostructured materials on the novel current collectors has recently considered as a promising strategy for developing high-performance supercapacitors. Herein, in the first step, a novel 3-D nickel nanocone arrays (NCAs) are synthesized on the surface of nickel plate (NP) by a one-step electrodeposition method without using any template (NCAs-NP). Then, a simple and efficient method is developed for fabricating ternary metal sulfides electrodes based on the electrodeposition of nickel cobalt iron sulfide (Ni-Co-Fe-S) ultrathin nanosheets on the surface of NCAs-NP. Taking advantages of the unique flower like structure of Ni-Co-Fe-S ultrathin nanosheets and... 

In the present work, mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) were synthesized by using a low-cost and unique set of precursors (camphor and urea). The CVD method at 1000 °C was used with different camphor/urea ratios, and Co-Mo/MgO nanocatalyst was utilized as growth catalyst. Application of mesoporous N-CNTs in selective oxidation of H2S was studied experimentally and N-CNTs interactions with H2S was also investigated using DFT calculations. The as-synthesized N-CNTs were characterized using FTIR, FE-SEM, elemental analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), XPS and nitrogen adsorption/desorption. The N-CNT2 sample with urea to camphor ratio (U/C) of 1 showed the highest sulfur yield at...