Sharif Digital Repository

In this research, an attempt was made toward synthesizing a sol–gel–based silica aerogel and its subsequent coating on a copper wire by phase separation of polystyrene. Adaption of this new approach enabled us to coat the metallic wire with powder materials. The use of this method for coating, led to the formation of a porous and thick structure of silica aerogel. The coated wire was placed in a needle and used as the sorbent for in–tube solid phase microextraction of chlorobenzenes (CBs). The superhydrophobicity of sorbent on extraction efficiency was investigated by using different ratios of tetraethylorthosilicate/methyltrimethoxysilane. The surface coated with the prepared silica aerogel... 

The authors have synthesized a superhydrophobic silica aerogel by using a sol-gel technique. The material is shown to be an efficient sorbent for needle trap microextraction of chlorobenzenes. Hydrophobicity affects the performance of the sorbent as shown by altering the ratio between tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and methyltrimethoxysilane when synthesizing the sorbent. The observed contact angle (which is >150°) underpins the superhydrophobic properties of the aerogel. The microstructure of the sorbent was investigated by BET adsorption, revealing a surface area above 1000 m2 g−1. The sorbent was applied to needle trap extraction of chlorobenzenes from aqueous samples, and their... 

This paper presents a phase-noise reduction technique for voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) using a harmonic tuned (HT) LC tank. The phase-noise suppression is achieved through almost rectangular-shaped VCO oscillating signal which effectively maximizes oscillating signal slope at zero crossing points resulting in-phase-noise degradation. In addition, by shortening down converted noise power around oscillating signal second harmonic, more phase-noise suppression has been achieved. A comprehensive analysis for frequency and amplitude deviations as high as 20% for third harmonic and its effect on output phase-noise suppression has been discussed. In the followings, a comprehensive analysis... 

An extracting medium based on chitosan-polypyrrole (CS-PPy) magnetic nanocomposite was synthesized by chemical polymerization of pyrrole at the presence of chitosan magnetic nanoparticles (CS-MNPs) for micro-solid phase extraction. In this work, magnetic nanoparticles, the modified CS-MNPs and different types of CS-PPy magnetic nanocomposites were synthesized. Extraction efficiency of the CS-PPy magnetic nanocomposite was compared with the CS-MNPs and Fe3O4 nanoparticles for the determination of naproxen in aqueous samples, via quantification by spectrofluorimetry. The scanning electron microscopy images obtained from all the prepared nanocomposites revealed that the CS-PPy magnetic... 

Superhydrophobic materials have attracted many attentions in recent years while their application in sample preparation remained almost intact. In this project, a rough surface of melamine formaldehyde foam was silanized by chemical deposition of trichloromethylsilane to form a highly porous and superhydrophobic material, presumably a suitable medium for extracting non–polar compounds such as benzene and its methyl derivatives. The prepared sorbent was packed in a needle for the headspace needle–trap microextraction of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX). Major parameters associated with the extraction/desorption processes were considered for optimization. Under the optimized... 

In this research, a new approach for extraction and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from sea and rain water samples was developed by implementing a superhydrophobic substrate and consuming the least amount of solvent. This version of solvent–supported microextraction enabled us to perform the procedure in the immersion mode with the slightest troubles arising from water leakage into the gas chromatography. The superhydrophobic property leads to the fixation of extracting solvent on the substrate surface during water sampling. To prepare a superhydrophobic substrate, a piece of melamine foam was coated by tannic acid and silica nanoparticles using methyltrimethoxysilane and... 

In this paper, an adaptive design methodology for synthesizing a harmonic free N-path filter with reduced frequency folding is presented. System level analysis of proposed architecture shows that by adding a few extra paths with proper weights to a conventional N-path filter, several characteristics such as harmonic rejection, power reduction, foldback elimination and spectrum shaping can be achieved. The designed filter is reconfigurable to be a band-pass filter (BPF) or a band-reject filter (notch), based on the requirements. By using the nth harmonic of Local Oscillator (LO) signal, instead of the fundamental harmonic, the required input clock frequency in N-phase clock generator is... 

An active switched-capacitor 4-path bandpass filter suitable for multi-standard applications in ultra-high frequency (UHF) band with different channel bandwidths is designed and simulated in 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The baseband impedance of the filter is implemented as a second-order Gm-C low-pass filter which can be used to tune the channel bandwidth as well as the quality factor (Q) of the RF filter. The center frequency of the filter can be tuned from 100 MHz up to 1.5 GHz by changing the clock frequency applied to the filter while its bandwidth can be tuned by tuning impedance parameters in any center frequency. To do so, the baseband impedance utilizes a frequency dependent negative... 

A thin film microextraction method using elecrospun magnetic polybutylene terephthalate nanofibers is developed and implemented to isolate some selected triazines. Due to the high mechanical stability of these nanofibers, they are repeatedly used under harsh magnetic stirring and ultrasonic conditions without any damage and structure degradation. The presence of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanofiber structure increases the extraction efficiency while the fibers could be collected by an external magnet. The synthesized nanocomposite showed strong affinity toward the selected analytes. Apart from the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles within the nanocomposite network, the effect of... 

A superhydrophobic extractive phase was prepared and packed in a needle trap microextraction device for extraction of volatile organic compounds, followed by their determination by gas chromatography. The superhydrophobic phase was prepared by surface modification of melamine formaldehyde (MF) sponge embedded by reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The overall properties of the modified MF along with its high sorption capacity and low cost fabrication were indicative of its feasibility to be highly suitable for extraction of organic pollutants. The determined water contact angle (>150o) from the surface of melamine formaldehyde–reduced graphene oxide (MF–rGO) revealed its high affinity toward... 

The effect of clock skew and duty-cycle on the performance of high-Q N-phase band-pass filters (BPFs) have been examined in this paper. Following a mathematical approach and using the analytical derivations carried out, the effects of such non-idealities as clock skew and duty-cycle error are determined in an N-path filter. It is analytically proved that image signals from all integer multiples of the clock signal, rather than just those at (1 ± kN) multiples of the clock signal, land atop the wanted RF spectrum. In a real world clock generator, with non-idealities in effect, filtering property and proper behavior of the filter is adversely affected. Finally, system level simulation along...