Sharif Digital Repository

Aromatic sulfur compounds present in liquid fuels in the form of thiophenes are converted into sulfur oxides (SOx) during the combustion of fuels and cause major environmental problems such as acid rain, global warming, and air pollution. The adsorptive desulfurization of four aromatic sulfur compounds─thiophene, benzothiophene, dibenzothiophene, and 4,6-dimethyl dibenzothiophene─from n-octane was investigated in the current study over five typical metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), namely MIL-53(Cr, Al, Fe), Cu-BDC, and HKUST-1, which were successfully synthesized and characterized using XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and N2 adsorption-desorption. The results indicate that for ADS of thiophene and BT, the... 

In this research, a novel graphene-supported catalyst was prepared through which, a simultaneous chemical exfoliation of graphite and MoS2 powder performed preparing a new composite species and evaluated for the hydrodesulfurization reaction of naphtha and no sulfidation pretreatment was performed upon the catalyst. Also, the influences of the operating parameters such as temperature, and liquid hourly space velocity on HDS conversion evaluated. (Chemical Equation Presented)  

In this study, graphene materials have been synthesized with solid camphor (C10H16O) and methane gas as carbon precursors using atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique at a temperature range of 900-1000 °C for a period of 45 min over copper nanoparticles. Influence of the carbon precursors upon the shape, number of layers and yield of the synthesized graphene samples has been investigated. In this venue, the compounds synthesized were functionalized with oxygen groups and impregnated by cobalt and molybdenum active phases. Moreover, the total metal loading and Co/Mo weight ratio of prepared compounds were adjusted to their industrial nominal values of 10% and 0.33,... 

A Co-Mo/graphene oxide (GO) catalyst has been synthesized for the first time for application in a defined hydrodesulfurization (HDS) process to produce sulfur free naphtha. An intelligent model based upon the neural network technique has then been developed to estimate the total sulfur output of this process. Process operating variables include temperature, pressure, LHSV and H2/feed volume ratio. The three-layer, feed-forward neural network developed consists of five neurons in a hidden layer, trained with Levenberg–Marquardt, back-propagation gradient algorithm. The predicted amount of residual total sulfur is in very good agreement with the corresponding experimental values revealing a... 

In this research effects of important synthesis parameters upon catalytic performance of a novel graphene based catalyst for an HDS reaction were investigated. The graphene oxide (GO) used as a support was initially prepared through chemical exfoliation of graphite via modified Hummers method. In this venue the impregnation method, promoter/main metallic spices ratio, total metal loading of the active phase and amount of chelating agent were systematically understudied. Thus, GO was impregnated with active metallic phases through the hydrothermal and modified incipient wetness impregnation techniques. In both procedures, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 weight ratios of Co/Mo with the percentages of the... 

Tunnels constructed using New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) are always based on certain round (unsupported) advance lengths, after which, the temporary lining is placed. The settlement of the ground surface resulting from such construction is of high significance in design and practice. The existing data in this respect, however, is scarce. It is the aim of this paper to propose a semi-analytical procedure based on three-dimensional finite element analyses to predict the maximum surface settlement of the ground in NATM tunnels under different combinations of tunnel diameter, overburden depth, round length and soil and lining properties. The comparison of the results with three case... 

Co-Mo/Graphene composite synthesized for the first time through the spray pyrolysis method and applied as an HDS catalyst to produce a sulfur free Naphtha feed. The major advantage of the spray pyrolysis technique was its concurrent capability of the in-situ and simultaneous Co-Mo deposition upon the graphene. The produced material was characterized through the XRD, BET-BJH, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy as well as; the NH3-TPD, TPR, TEM and FESEM techniques. The prepared catalyst showed unique properties such as; high degree of total acidity of 5.1 (vs. the usual 0.2–2.0) mmole NH3/g-cat and a relatively high surface area of 705 vs. 189 m2/g of the commercial material. Furthermore, the... 

According to Arthur (2006, p. 200), “Through the use of literature, a language learning experience might become at the same time a source of immediate pleasure and satisfaction for the student. This possibility makes literature an appealing teaching device for ESL teachers”. However, numerous factors may contribute to the teachers’ lack of interest in using literary texts as a teaching tool. This study was an attempt to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ attitude toward using literature in language classes and their perception toward the probable reasons of some teachers’ lack of interest in doing so. Altogether forty-four language teachers (19 females and 25 males, with a mean age of 26)... 

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... 

The unwanted effects of diffraction and defocus aberration in three-dimensional integral imaging are taken into account by using the Fourier optics approach. The concepts of point spread function and optical transfer function widely in use for conventional two-dimensional imaging are generalized and applied to three-dimensional integral imaging systems. The effects of diffraction and defocus aberration are then studied and the performance of the conventional single lens imaging system is compared against that of the integral imaging  

High temperature shape memory NiTiHf thin films with varying hafnium contents up to 28.7 at.% were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering using simultaneous sputter deposition from separate elemental targets. The required film composition was achieved by adjusting the power ratio to the targets. The as-deposited films were amorphous; a post deposition annealing was performed at 550 °C to crystallize the films. Two-micron thick films were characterized by energy dispersive spectroscopy in a scanning electron microscope, temperature controlled X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and atomic force microscopy. The results showed that above 10 at.% Hf additions the transformation... 

Consider Myerson's optimal auction with respect to an inaccurate prior, e.g., estimated from data, which is an underestimation of the true value distribution. Can the auctioneer expect getting at least the optimal revenue w.r.t. the inaccurate prior since the true value distribution is larger? This so-called strong revenue monotonicity is known to be true for single-parameter auctions when the feasible allocations form a matroid. We find that strong revenue monotonicity fails to generalize beyond the matroid setting, and further show that auctions in the matroid setting are the only downward-closed auctions that satisfy strong revenue monotonicity. On the flip side, we recover an approximate... 

In recent years, subsidy payment has been made a main challenge for governments due to growth of population and energy price in global markets. Targeted subsidy plan has been implemented in Iran since last year, and this article discusses its effects on costs and revenues of Tehran Electricity Company as one of the major subdivisions of Iran's electricity industry. In the new system, structural changes have been made in electricity tariffs, so it is not possible to predict the future trends in electricity consumption only based on the past consumptions. In order to model the decision making structure in the recent conditions, a system dynamics method is applied. In addition to modeling the... 

Understanding the nature of interaction between metal nanoparticles and biomolecules such as amino acids is important in the development and design of biosensors. In this paper, binding of M3 clusters (M = Au, Ag and Cu) with neutral and anionic forms of histidine amino acid was studied using density functional theory (DFT-B3LYP). It was found that the interaction of histidine with M3 clusters is governed by two major bonding factors: (a) the anchoring N-M and O-M bonds and (b) the nonconventional N-H⋯M and O-H⋯M hydrogen bonds. The nature of these chemical bonds has been investigated based on quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses. In the next... 

The relative stabilities and noncovalent interactions of the six low-lying energy tautomers of cytosine nucleobase with some biological anions (such as F-, Cl-, and CN-) have been investigated in gas phase by density functional theory (DFT) method in conjunction with 6-311++G (d,p) atomic basis set. Furthermore, to systematically investigate all possible tautomerisms from cytosine induced by proton transfer, we describe a study of structural tautomer interconversion in the gas phase and in a continuum solvent using DFT calculation. We carried out geometrical optimizations with the integral equation formalism of polarizable continuum (IEF-PCM) model to account for the solvent effect, and the... 

Understanding the nature of the interaction between metal nanoparticles and biomolecules has been important in the development and design of sensors. In this paper, structural, electronic, and bonding properties of the neutral and anionic forms of glutathione tripeptide (GSH) complexes with a Au 3 cluster were studied using the DFT-B3LYP with 6-31+G**-LANL2DZ mixed basis set. Binding of glutathione with the gold cluster is governed by two different kinds of interactions: Auâ€"X (X = N, O, and S) anchoring bond and Au··•·•H-X nonconventional hydrogen bonding. The influence of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding of glutathione on the interaction of this peptide with the gold cluster has been...