Sharif Digital Repository

LTA Zeolite nanoparticles was successfully synthesized from clear solution under controlled conditions using hydrothermal method using tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide as a structural directing agent. The as-synthesized LTA zeolite particles were characterized by powder X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform InfraRed (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and surface area measuring technique of Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET). XRD patterns and FT-IR spectra were ascertained the formation of pure crystalline phase of 4A (i.e. LTA) zeolite. SEM micrograph was shown particles size in the range of 60 -170 nm with uniform... 

This mini review article, intends to provide the essential information about microemulsion technique as a reliable approach toward the synthesis of zeolitic nano crystallites. The strategy discussed here provides a unique, effective, and potentially general methodology to the preparation of uniform and high purity nano crystallites of template-free zeolitic materials including LTA, faujasite type and other zeolitic-like materials (i.e. zeotype materials). Microemulsion is a reliable approach for controlled synthesis of uniform nano sized zeolitic particulates. On the other hand, the microwave assisted microemulsion technique has the advantages of short reaction time, producing smaller and... 

The effective parameters such as particle size, temperature, pressure and extraction time on supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of cocoa butter form cocoa seed were studied in order to find the optimum conditions for extraction. Particle size from whole cocoa nibs to one millimeter diameter, extraction temperature from 35°C to 55°C, extraction time from 2 to 8 hours and extraction pressure from 5 to 20 MPa were investigated and optimized. The optimum results (according to the limitation of the apparatus) of 5.2% extraction efficiency, suggests that pure CO2 is not a suitable solvent for extraction of cocoa butter in the investigated range of parameters and therefore the use of a... 

Ag@Pt nanoparticles synthesized with different Ag/Pt mass ratios utilizing ultrasonic treatment method. These materials were supported on Vulcan XC-72 and utilized as cathode in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The morphology of this material characterized through the x-ray diffraction (XRD), induced coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) as well as; high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) techniques. To begin with, it was proven that, the prepared Ag@Pt/C catalyst possessed a core–shell nanostructure. The electrochemical properties of this material investigated through the Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and... 

The impact of modified magnetite nanoparticles (MMNPs)on hydrodynamics and mass transfer in liquid–liquid extraction process was assessed using a ternary chemical system of toluene-acetic acid–water. The organic phase which contained toluene and acetic acid was dispersed through water, and the mass transfer of acetic acid between two phases was investigated. The hydrophobic modified magnetite nanoparticles (MMNPs)prepared through an optimized in-situ method were added to the dispersed phase at different concentrations (0.001−0.005 wt%). Two separate conditions were provided in the experiments, i.e. stagnant and stirred continuous phase. The latter case was provided by a rotor at two... 

The magnetic adsorbent nanoparticle was modified using cationic surface active agent. Zinc ferrite nanoparticle and cetyl trimethylammonium bromide were used as an adsorbent and a surface active agent, respectively. Dye removal ability of the surface modified nanoparticle as an adsorbent was investigated. Direct Green 6(DG6), Direct Red 31 (DR31) and Direct Red 23 (DR23) were used. The characteristics of the adsorbent were studied using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration and salt was evaluated. In ternary system, dye removal of the adsorbent at 90, 120, 150 and 200 mg/L... 

This study proposes a mathematical model to evaluate the impact of oxygen carriers and scaffold geometry on oxygen distribution and cell growth in a 3D cardiac construct using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Flow equations, oxygen balance equation and cell balance equation were solved using special initial and boundary conditions. The modeling results revealed that 55% increase in cardiac cell density occurred by using 6.4% perfluorocarbon oxygen carrier (PFC) compared to pure culture medium without PFC supplementation. Moreover, the effects of the scaffold geometry on cell density were examined by changing the channel numbers and the construct length. A 30% increase in the average cells... 

The polycarbonate (PC)/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) blend membranes were prepared by phase inversion process applied to membrane bioreactor (MBR) to investigate the fouling characteristics. The impact of TPU and poly (vinylpyrrolidone) PVP concentration in polymer dopes on membrane structure, morphology, and performance were studied. The flat sheet fabricated membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), water contact angle (WCA), membrane surface roughness measurements and mechanical strength. The membrane performance was investigated at subcritical operating conditions. Pure water and critical flux through the fabricated membranes were measured for better... 

Obtaining a deep knowledge about the bubbly flow systems, which are widely applied in various chemical and industrial processes, is crucial for scholars and engineers to achieve more accurate equipment design and processes control. This paper is dedicated to experimentally investigate the distinctly and concurrently effects of fumed silica nanoparticles (NPs) and hexane vapor molecules as impurities in continuous and discrete phases, respectively, on the terminal velocity and drag coefficient of a single rising bubble in aqueous solutions. The obtained experimental data were compared to the calculated data by derived correlations in literatures. As a result, none of those can predict the... 

This paper deals with computational and experimental studies on the oscillatory flow at high frequencies up to 100. Hz performed with the Oscillating Drop and Bubble Analyzer (ODBA) setup based on the capillary pressure technique. The CFD results are validated considering pressure amplitude experimental data. The simulated results of phase shift between the generated oscillatory flow and the consequent pressure amplitudes show also good agreement with the experimental data. In absence of any compressibility and viscoelasticity effects and assumptions, a complex velocity field during oscillation is the main reason for the observation of a phase shift. The results of velocity profiles at the... 

Results are presented from a numerical study examining the flow of a viscous, incompressible fluid through a random packing of non-overlapping spheres at moderate Reynolds numbers, spanning a wide range of flow conditions for porous media. By using a laminar model including inertial terms and assuming rough walls, numerical solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations in three-dimensional porous packed beds resulted in dimensionless pressure drops in excellent agreement with those reported in a previous study. This observation suggests that no transition to turbulence could occur in the range of the Reynolds number studied. For flows in the Forchheimer regime, numerical results are presented of... 

Microfluidic on-chip production of microgels using external gelation can serve numerous applications that involve encapsulation of sensitive cargos. Nevertheless, on-chip production of microgels in microfluidic devices can be challenging due to problems induced by the rapid increase in precursor solution viscosity like clogging. Here, a novel design incorporating a step, which includes a sudden increase in cross-sectional area, before a flow-focusing nozzle was proposed for microfluidic droplet generators. Besides, a shielding oil phase was utilized to avoid the occurrence of emulsification and gelation stages simultaneously. The step which was located before the flow-focusing nozzle... 

Prediction of supersolubility and the width of the metastable zone has been a major concern among the workers in the field of industrial crystallization. Operation of crystallizers under the optimum supersaturation low enough to attain the desired product quality (Median Particle Size, Crystal Size Distribution (CSD), Shape, Purity) being one motif. The inherent relationship between the subject and the most fundamental concepts of crystallization being the other. Studying the conditions of primary homogenous nucleation and the crystal growth kinetics has been conducted for a wide range of inorganic materials. A simple probabilistic term called chance of having the desirable species... 

During the past decades, a significant increase occurred in accidental oil spill in the aquatic environments. In this regard, oil spill in Marine freshwater is still considered as a major environmental hazard. In this research, the experimental data on the sorption capacity of expanded perlite to crude oil were correlated with the equilibrium isotherm of Langmuir, Freudlich, Tempkin and the three parameter Redlich-Peterson isotherms. The results obtained from each specified isotherms were compared and accuracy of the models were favorably discussed. Accuracy of each model using the error function were evaluated. Moreover, the effect of type of objective function on the final results was... 

Preparation, characterization and evaluation of new generation of micro-filters based on polyacrylonitrile electrospun nanofiberous membrane (ENM) were thoroughly investigated. First, quantitative relationships between average diameter, bead area density of nano-fibers and certain electrospinning parameters, i.e., concentration, voltage, spinning distance, and feed rate, were established by empirical modeling based on a central composite design. The analysis revealed that concentration, voltage and distance are the significant parameters. Also, adequacy checking indicated the appropriateness of fit for the models. Afterwards, bead-free ENMs with diameter of 100-500 nm were prepared and... 

Preparation, characterization and evaluation of new generation of micro-filters based on polyacrylonitrile electrospun nanofiberous membrane (ENM) were thoroughly investigated. First, quantitative relationships between average diameter, bead area density of nano-fibers and certain electrospinning parameters, i.e., concentration, voltage, spinning distance, and feed rate, were established by empirical modeling based on a central composite design. The analysis revealed that concentration, voltage and distance are the significant parameters. Also, adequacy checking indicated the appropriateness of fit for the models. Afterwards, bead-free ENMs with diameter of 100-500 nm were prepared and... 

Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) as main polymer, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as additive, and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as solvent using Design Expert software for designing the experiments. The membranes were characterized by SEM, contact angle measurement, and atomic force microscopy. The performance of UF membranes was evaluated by pure water flux (PWF) and blue indigo dye particle rejection. In addition, the molecular weight cutoff of UF membranes was determined by poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) rejection. The UF membranes were used as substrates for fabrication of polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. The... 

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... 

For the reason that flow expansion model (developed in our previous work) for evaluating mass transfer during droplet formation involves with manifest hydrodynamic aspects, in this research computational simulation of this phenomenon was done for characterization of hydrodynamics effects on the mass transfer during droplet formation. For this purpose, an Eulerian volume tracking computational code based on volume of fluid (VOF) method was developed to solve the transient Navier-Stokes equations for the axisymmetric free-boundary problem of a Newtonian liquid that is dripping vertically and breaking as drops into another immiscible Newtonian fluid. The effects of hydrodynamics effects on the... 

In this work, two-membrane distillation (MD) modes, direct contact MD, and sweeping gas MD were investigated for synthesized and real (Persian Gulf) seawater desalination. A commercial PTFE membrane with 0.22 μm pore size was characterized (using atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy) and was used for experiments. A multipurpose plate and frame MD module was used for desalination experiments. The effects of various operating conditions and MD module design, as well as feed type on the permeation flux have been studied. The feed temperature was found to be the most effective operating parameter. The flow rate in both sides of the MD module was found to be effective;...