Sharif Digital Repository

Tributhyl phosphate (TBP) decomposition in supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) was performed with and without catalyst, at different temperatures ranging from 370 to 480 °C, and different reaction times. Ag2O, CuO, Fe2O3, MgO, and ZnO synthesized by supercritical water were examined in TBP decomposition as the catalyst. TBP structure decomposed under the non-catalytic reaction; nevertheless, the results indicated that the use of catalysts improved the reaction efficiency, which calculated based on total organic carbon (TOC) removal, by far. However, TOC removal using Fe2O3 was 20% higher than the non-catalytic reaction. Having the ability in completion of the redox cycle, iron oxide... 

The effects of varying operating conditions on metals removal from aqueous solution using a novel platinum nanopartcles/Zeolite-4A adsorbent are reported in this paper. Characterization of the adsorbent showed successful production of platinum nanopartcles on Zeolite-4A using 3 Wt% platinum. The effects of operation conditions on metals removal using this adsorbent were investigated. The optimal metals adsorption was observed at pH 7, 0.1 g/10 mL dosage and 30 min contact time. Sorption data have been interpreted in terms of Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms  

Henry's law constant and crystal diffusivity of xenon in the granulated nano-NaY zeolite were measured by the pulse gas chromatography method. For this purpose the moments of response peaks of xenon were analyzed. The effect of extra column parts of the utilized chromatographic system was also considered by analyzing the moments of the response peak which was obtained by pulse injection of inert gas of helium into the carrier gas of nitrogen. In addition, the measurement of average velocity of the carrier gas regarding the pressure drop in the extra column parts of the system attributed to precise results. By carrying out the experiments at various temperatures in the range of 30-110 °C the... 

Nowadays, software product line is an approach to reduce costs of software development, decrease time to market, and increase capabilities of reuse in designing and exploiting software development processes. Moreover, other quality attributes of the project domain should be considered to enhance quality of the product. Meanwhile, taking advantage of software product line makes developers capable of estimating development costs and time to market in a more realistic way. However, old approaches to estimate cost of development and foresee time to market are not suitable enough for software product line. In this paper, some important business parameters and a way to calculate cost and time to... 

Due to the necessity for methods that are able to handle complexities of systems, use of Method Engineering (ME) to construct more adaptable and flexible methods has become of importance. Assemblybased approach is the most well-known approach of ME that performs method construction by reusing and assembling different method fragments. This approach, like other approaches of ME, suffers from the lack of suitable guidelines. In this way, architecture-centric method engineering (ArCME) is a new approach which aims at performing ME processes in a more disciplined and cohesive way. In this paper, process of assemblybased ME is enhanced by ArCME. Furthermore, benefits of implementing the process... 

Gold nanorods (GNRs) can be used in various biomedical applications; however, very little is known about their in vivo tissue distribution by radiolabeling. Here, we have developed a rapid and simple method with high yield and without disturbing their optical properties for radiolabeling of gold rods with iodine-131 in order to track in vivo tissue uptake of GNRs after systemic administration by biodistribution analysis and γ-imaging. Following intravenous injection into rat, PEGylated GNRs have much longer blood circulation times. We have developed a rapid and simple method for radiolabeling of gold rods with iodine-131 in order to track in vivo tissue uptake of gold nanorods after systemic... 

Vacuum residue cracking has been successfully conducted under supercritical water condition in presence of various metal oxide nanocalysts, namely NiO, CuO, ZnO, Co2O3, and Cr2O3 synthesized at supercritical water. The cracking experiments were carried out at 450 °C. Three species of cracking: maltene, asphaltene, and coke were then weighed and their corresponding speciation was defined. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and elemental analysis (CHNS) tests were utilized to prove the performance of upgrading reactions. It was revealed that NiO showed the best performance among other catalyst, in which... 

Thorium dioxide (thoria) nano-particle was synthesized by employing supercritical water (SCW) as an excellent reaction environment for hydrothermal crystallization of metal oxide particles. This method is ideal for production of ultrafine powder having controlled stoichiometry, high quality, purity and crystallinity. The nano-crystalline thoria was prepared in a stainless steel (316 L) autoclave, fed with an aqueous solution of Th(NO 3) 4.5H 2O as a reactant and took place under SCW condition up to 450 °C for 45 min. The product was recovered and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermal Gravimetry Analysis (TG/DTA) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area analysis. The... 

NaY zeolite nanoparticles were synthesized and shaped into the uniform spherical granules using a developed novel and simple two-step granulation technique. First, the alginate/nanozeolite or alginate/nanozeolite-bentonite spherical hybrid was successfully fabricated, and then the alginate was decomposed by calcinations resulting uniform spherical granules. To improve the mechanical stability of the prepared granules, bentonite was added as an inorganic binder at different ratios of 20wt.% to 40wt.%. Moreover, the effect of binder on the ion exchange properties of the prepared granules was studied. Increasing of binder content from 20wt.% to 40wt.% linearly enhanced the mechanical stability... 

Business processes perform a significant role in increasing the success of organizational processes and functionalities. Due to the ever increasing growth in the scale and complexity of processes in line with taking advantage of combinational methods and ideas to optimize workflows and gain higher efficiency, lack of a framework considering both business process semantic and structure for business process modeling is completely sensible. Adding semantic to business process models will result in more comprehensible and automatically-executable processes. Moreover, preparing a suitable structure by making use of software architectural concepts will lead to a major decrease in misunderstanding... 

In this work, molecular dynamic simulation of the mixture of imidazolium based ionic liquids with alcohols is implemented in order to investigate mixing excess properties and some structural and physical properties of the mixture. Excess volumes and enthalpies are evaluated for 11 different mole fractions of ionic liquids at each 0.1, in the range of 0 to 1. Radial distribution function, cohesive energy density, potential of mean force, solvation energy, and diffusion coefficient are reported and analysed. The effects of the cationic alkyl chain length, in comparison with changes of the anions, on these properties are reported. Results reveal that the methanol molecule participates with its... 

A comparative study on the uptake properties of alginate microcapsules containing Cyanex 302 extractant, Lewatite TP 214 chelating resin, and Amberlite 200CT strongly acidic ion exchanger has been conducted using Ag+ as the target ion. The study resulted in an analytical formula, as well as three phenomenological breakthrough formulas that are also applicable in other fixed-bed operations. It also demonstrated a close similarity of the uptake properties of alginate microcapsules (MCs) and the chelating resins. Advantages of MCs over chelating resins include ease of preparation, ability to immobilize different extractants, and, most remarkably, an enormous distribution factor (Kd ≈ 106... 

The current study presents a simple and scalable method for the synthesis of (aminomethyl)phosphonic acid-functionalized graphene oxide (AMPA-GO) adsorbent. The chemical structure of the new material was disclosed by different instrumental analyses (e.g. FTIR, Raman, XPS, AFM, TEM, XRD, CHN, and UV), and two pertinent mechanisms namely nucleophilic substitution and condensation were suggested for its formation. Adsorption experiments revealed that both AMPA-GO and plain GO have a high affinity toward Th(IV) ions, but the AMPA-GO is superior in terms of adsorption capacity, rate of adsorption, selectivity, pH effect, etc. Indeed, the AMPA-GO can uptake Th(IV) nearly instantaneously, and... 

In this work, a novel approach to model the dynamic behavior of the flash separation process (as a main building block of non-reacting stage-wise operations) based on Mamdani Fuzzy Inference Systems is proposed. This model surmounts the need to solve various types of mathematical equations governing the system and does not require thermodynamic properties which are either not available or computationally demanding. Hence it can be easily used in dynamic simulation of multi-phase flow in distributed systems. In the proposed approach the overall model is broken into several simple sub-models based on intuitive analysis of an expert. Moreover, a new fuzzy concept, named “Linguistic Composition... 

Polyurethane (PU) nanocomposites with 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 wt-% nanoclay contents were prepared. X-ray diffraction patterns, transmission electron microscopy images, tensile test, and thermogravimetric analysis were utilised to reveal the morphological, mechanical, and thermal-resistant properties of the prepared nanocomposites. The exfoliated structure was obtained for nanoclay contents up to 3 wt-%. Incorporation of nanoclay to the PU matrix prompted the thermal stability of the polymer. A nanocomposite filled with 3 wt-% nanoclay showed the best tensile strength in the prepared nanocomposites. Subsequently, the nanocomposite with the 3 wt-% nanoclay was reinforced with carbon and glass... 

Hydrothermal synthesis of CuO nanoparticles under near-critical and supercritical conditions was investigated from two different standpoints in the current study. The first standpoint was optimization of "yield", "purity", and "size of the nanoparticles" that were optimized at T = 500 °C, time = 2 h, [Cu(NO3)2] = 0.1 mol dm-3, and pH 3. This was achieved by undertaking an orthogonal experiment design methodology and performing different instrumental analyses, such as X-ray diffractometry, inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, and transmission electron microscopy, along with treatment of the data by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The second goal of the study was elucidation of the... 

Following our previous work on morphology, corrosion resistance and thermal properties of unsaturated polyester (UP)/nanoclay composites, the effect of electron beam (EB) irradiation on mechanical properties of UP/nanoclay composites with various nanoclay contents is investigated in this work. Moreover, influence of EB irradiation with doses of 100, 500 and 1000 kGy on tensile properties and hardness of nanocomposite was examined. FTIR spectroscopy was employed to examine the effect of irradiation on chemical structure of polymer. EB irradiation up to 500 kGy led to the improvement of tensile strength and hardness of the samples. The best mechanical properties were observed for the... 

With an ageing population, hearing disorders are predicted to rise considerably in the following decades. Thus, developing a new class of artificial auditory system has been highlighted as one of the most exciting research topics for biomedical applications. Herein, a design of a biocompatible piezoresistive-based artificial hair cell sensor is presented consisting of a highly flexible and conductive polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite with vertical graphene nanosheets (VGNs). The bilayer hydrogel sensor demonstrates excellent performance to mimic biological hair cells, responding to acoustic stimuli in the audible range between 60 Hz to 20 kHz. The sensor output demonstrates stable... 

With an ageing population, hearing disorders are predicted to rise considerably in the following decades. Thus, developing a new class of artificial auditory system has been highlighted as one of the most exciting research topics for biomedical applications. Herein, a design of a biocompatible piezoresistive-based artificial hair cell sensor is presented consisting of a highly flexible and conductive polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite with vertical graphene nanosheets (VGNs). The bilayer hydrogel sensor demonstrates excellent performance to mimic biological hair cells, responding to acoustic stimuli in the audible range between 60 Hz to 20 kHz. The sensor output demonstrates stable... 

Multiphase flow meters (MPFMs) are utilized to provide quick and accurate well test data in numerous numbers of oil production applications like those in remote or unmanned locations topside exploitations that minimize platform space and subsea applications. Flow rates of phases (oil, gas and water) are most important parameter which is detected by MPFMs. Conventional MPFM data collecting is done in long periods; because of radioactive sources usage as detector and unmanned location due to wells far distance. In this paper, based on a real case of MPFM, a new method for oil rate prediction of wells base on Fuzzy logic, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Imperialist Competitive Algorithm is...