Sharif Digital Repository

Counter electrode of dye sensitized solar cell is prepared by deposition of a thin catalytic layer onto a conducting substrate and is responsible for reduction of iodide/triiodide redox electrolyte. Conventionally, counter electrode is made of platinum.
Depending on the method of deposition, the thickness of Pt layer varies. The Pt layer may be so thick that it acts as reflector and returns the incident light back to the cell. In this case, large amount of Pt is used and a rise in cost is been made, but only the Pt particles in the interface of counter electrode/electrolyte take part in the reduction reaction.
The aim of this project is optimization of making a counter electrode,... 

A lot of researchers have suggested that ostracism as a disruptive behavior, has been widespread among organizations and a lot of researches has been studied its consequences in recent years.This research studies ostracism’s consequences and proposes a theoretical model of organizational ostracism with affective commitment, intention to turnover and organizational dependability as one of affective commitment’s antecedents. This study has been done on 231 employees of three medium knowledge-based organizations to identify the effects of ostracism on employee’s turnover behavior. Results show that ostracism, due to its impact on the affective commitment of ostracized peoples, reduces this type... 

Solar cells, as a part of photovoltaics (PV) industry, have a significant share in the renewable energy market. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and thin film solar cells (TFSCs) achieved 23% and 22% power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) respectively. However, the PV industry still faces challenges like “high manufacturing costs” and “stability”. Among the strategies to overcome these challenges are substitution of the costly materials with cheaper, more abundant ingredients along with utilizing inexpensive deposition methods like printing rather than vacuum-based methods such as evaporation and sputtering. Carbon materials attract more attention in the solar cell research community for their... 

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to identify active followership behaviors of followers in interaction with autocratic leaders. An active follower thinks critically and takes initiatives.
Design: Given that Followership literature is still in its infancy, the research questions needed a qualitative approach, in this case grounded theory. In total, 19 top- & middle-level managers were interviewed as leaders and followers, accordingly, using semi-structured interviews.
Findings: 4 categories of active followership were found, each having 3-4 specific behaviors. These categories are: precautionary behaviors, facilitating behaviors, modificating behaviors, and consolidating... 

There is no consensus definition of cynicism in literature. In this research different definitions of cynicism have been investigated and two concept of organizational cynicism and trait cynicism have been taken into consideration. Organizational cynicism is a negative attitude that is prevalent in employees. In literature some antecedents and consequences of organizational cynicism have been suggested. It seems organizational cynicism can be investigated in a more complex relations. The focus of this research is on the mediating role of organizational cynicism on the likely relations between politics perception and organizational commitment. That is to say organizational cynicism can... 

Feedback-seeking behavior is the effort of employees to get feedback from the environment and around people about their performance. One of the research questions in this field is about the factors that increase this behavior in the staff. Transformational leadership as a leadership style, stimulates, and motivates followers to achieving desirable operational results. In addition, an important consequence of this style could be increasing the followers' capabilities. Transformational leaders are trying to empower their followers to build and empower them, which can provide a strong incentive for employees to move and grow, which may encourage them to have a better performance. One of... 

Although existing literature on organizational culture and its change process contains meaningful and rich theories but our studies show that there is no perfect and detailed framework on linking organizational culture change and corporate entrepreneurship culture. In addition to that, Gamification –defined as taking the game design elements into non-game contexts– is a fruitful and academically rich research area. Fortunately an idea proposed recently to explain a method for enhancements in organizational culture in general, and in corporate entrepreneurship culture in particularby Yavari and Jafarian based on using game mechanisms. In their paper "A Gamification-Based Method for Corporate... 

Considering the importance of biocompatibility of implantable prothesis’, metallic alloys have weaker corrosion resistance than ceramics. In order to extend usage of nanomaterials to improve the bio-properties of materials, Nano-structured ceramic coatings are being suggested to improve corrosion resistance and biocompatibility of prosthesis. Meanwhile, very good properties of TiN, such as corrosion resistance and mechanical properties as a thin film coating are undeniable. In this study, TiN and Ti2N thin film were deposited on Ti-based substrate, using PVD and Magnetron sputtering at different argon to nitrogen ratio. The crystal structure of the films was examined using Grazing XRD... 

There are several methods proposed for the instruction and assessment of interlanguage pragmatic competence of foreign language learners. Dynamic assessment as one of the recent methods arising from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind incorporates assessment and instruction by engaging learners in a process of interaction with the mediator while the learners are trying to perform a challenging task. The present study aimed to explore the advantage of Dynamic Assessment as an instructional instrument over the Non-dynamic (traditional) Assessment and Non-assessment approaches and their effects on the Iranian intermediate level students. The target speech acts of apology, complaint, and... 

Fiber optic sensors have found industrial applications due to their unique characteristics and wide range of environmental parameters. Specifically, distributed optical fiber sensors which have applications in borders protection, intrusion detection, oil and gas leakage detection and smart irrigation of farms and gardens, have attracted significant attention from research groups around the world in recent years. According to the forecasts, among all kind of optical fiber sensors, the temperature and acoustic/vibration sensors will seize the market during the coming years. In this thesis, three kind of optical fiber sensors are proposed for environment health monitoring. First, distributed... 

The accurate assessment of biomarkers likes proteins, hormones or other biomolecules that amount of them changes with state of disease or level of treatment and gives diagnostic information is a difficult duty. In these samples, pathogens exist in small quantity compared to other background molecules. Therefore, appropriate sampling process for concentrating and separating pathogens from the matrix should be developed in order to provide rapid and accurate pathogen detection test. In this thesis design and fabrication of microfluidic biosensors based on the modified nanofibrous membranes were investigated and explained. PES nanofibrous membrane with carboxyl functional groups for covalent... 

Ability to differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells to cardiomycocytes has attracted attentions,considering crucial role of the heart in the human body and great potential applications of these cells like disease modeling, new treatment methods and basic research. We are able to analyze the performance of beating cells through recording extracellular field potentials of cardiomyocytes using multi-electrode array (MEA) technology. This analysis is an essential step to use cardiac cells in any future development and experiment. Currently, the electrophysiology experts analyze recorded extracellular field potentials of induced cardiomyocytes by observing all the episodes of each record.... 

During the past two decades, much attention has been paid to rechargeable lithium batteries, because they have high energy density. Glass-ceramics is a category of this material, which may be of great potential as solid electrolytes.. The object of this thesis is preparation of Li2O-TiO2-P2O5 glass, glass-ceramic and investigation their electrical behavior. Prepared Samples were investigated by Differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Visible spectroscopy and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). In this study LiTi2(PO4)3 crystals were crystallized in a glass with the composition 45Li2O-25TiO2-30P2O5 (molar ratio). According... 

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a process in which a special piece of a gene is amplified millions of times over a short period. This method has been of paramount importance in different fields of research and has been applied for different applications. PCR requires thermal cycling, or repeated temperature changes between two or three discrete temperatures to amplify specific nucleic acid target sequences. To achieve such thermal cycling, conventional bench-top thermal cyclers generally use a metal heating block powered by Peltier elements or benefit from forced convection heat transfer. Due to the fact that these methods are time consuming, it seems that design and fabrication of a fast...