Sharif Digital Repository

In dye-sensitized solar cells recombination reactions at the TiO2 photoanode with the electrolyte interface plays a critical role in cell efficiency. Recombination of injected electrons in the TiO2 with acceptors in the electrolyte usually occurs on uncovered areas of TiO2 surfaces. In this work, we report electropolymerization of polymer films on nanoporous TiO2 electrode surfaces using an ionic liquid as the growth medium. The choice of ionic liquid as the growth medium for this study is based on the insolubility of dye N719 in this electrolyte, thus avoiding dye molecule detachment from the TiO2 photoanode surface over the entire potential range investigated during the... 

A carbon paste electrode (CPE), modified with novel hydroquinone/TiO2 nanoparticles, was designed and used for simultaneous determination of ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA) and folic acid (FA). The magnitude of the peak current for modified TiO2-nanoparticle CPE (MTNCPE) increased sharply in the presence of ascorbic acid and was proportional to its concentration. A dynamic range of 1.0-1400.0 μM, with the detection limit of 6.4x10-7M for AA, was obtained using the DPV technique (pH=7.0). The prepared electrode was successfully applied for the determination of AA, UA, and FA in real samples  

A carbon paste electrode (CPE) chemically modified with TiO2 nanoparticles and quinizarine (QZ) was used as a selective electrochemical sensor for the simultaneous determination of minor amounts of d-penicillamine (D-PA) and tryptophan (Trp). This modified electrode showed very efficient electrocatalytic activity for anodic oxidation of both d-PA and Trp. Substantial decreases of anodic overpotentials for both compounds made this analysis possible. Results of square wave voltammetry (SWV) using this modified electrode showed two well-resolved anodic waves for the oxidation of d-PA and Trp, which makes the simultaneous determination of both compounds possible. The peak potential for the... 

A carbon paste electrode, modified with 2, 2″-[1,7- hepthandiylbis(nitriloethylidyne)]-bis-hydroquinone and TiO 2 nanoparticles, was used for the simultaneous determination of dopamine (DA), uric acid (UA), and l-cysteine. The study was carried out by using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and square wave voltammetry (SWV) techniques. Some kinetic parameters such as the electron transfer coefficient (α) and heterogeneous rate constant (k s) were also determined for the DA oxidation. A dynamic range of 8.0-1400 μM, with the detection limit of 8.4∈×∈10 -7 M for DA, was obtained using SWV (pH∈=∈7.0). The prepared electrode was successfully applied for the determination of DA, UA, and... 

In the present paper, the use of a novel carbon paste electrode modified by N,N'(2,3-dihydroxybenzylidene)-1,4-phenylenediamine (DHBPD) and TiO2 nanoparticles prepared by a simple and rapid method for the determination of dopamine (DA) was described. In the first part of the work, cyclic voltammetry was used to investigate the redox properties of this modified electrode at various solution pH values and at various scan rates. A linear segment was found with slope value of about 48 mV/pH in the pH range 2.0 -12.0. The apparent charge transfer rate constant (ks) and transfer coefficient (α) for electron transfer between DHBPD and TiO2 nanoparticles-carbon paste electrode were calculated. In... 

In the present paper, the use of a carbon paste electrode modified by 2,2′-[1,2 buthanediylbis (nitriloethylidyne)]-bis-hydroquinone (BH) and TiO2 nanoparticles prepared by a simple and rapid method was described. The modified electrode showed an excellent character for electrocatalytic oxidization of norepinephrine (NE), acetaminophene (AC) and folic acid (FA). Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), a highly selective and simultaneous determination of NE, AC and FA has been explored at the modified electrode. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) peak currents of NE, AC and FA increased linearly with their concentration at the ranges of 4.0-1100.0 μM, 12.5-500.0 μM and 200.0-3200.0 μM,... 

A modified carbon paste electrode was prepared by incorporating TiO2 nanoparticles with bis[bis(salicylidene-1,4-phenylenediamine)molybdenum(VI)]. A mixture of fine graphite powder with 4 wt% of TiO2 nanoparticles was applied for the preparation of the carbon paste (by dispersing in paraffin) and finally modified with a molybdenum (VI) complex. The electrocatalytic oxidation of guanine (G) was investigated on the surface of the molybdenum (VI) complex-TiO2 nanoparticle modified carbon paste electrode (MCTNMCPE) using cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), chronoamperometry (CHA) and chronocoloumetry (CHC). Using the modified electrode, the kinetics of G... 

A carbon paste electrode (CPE) modified with 2,2′-[1,2 butanediylbis(nitriloethylidyne)]-bis-hydroquinone (BBNBH) and TiO2 nanoparticles was used for the sensitive voltammetric determination of epinephrine (EP). The electrochemical response characteristics of the modified electrode toward EP and acetaminophen (AC) were investigated by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry (CV and DPV). The results showed an efficient catalytic activity of the electrode for the electrooxidation of EP, which leads to a reduction in its overpotential by more than 270 mV. The effects of pH and potential sweep rate on the mechanism of the electrode process were investigated. The modified electrode exhibits an... 

This paper proposes a straightforward control method for voltage control of a three-phase transformer-based inverter in uninterruptible power supplies or distributed generation systems. The approach offers a dual-loop design consisting inner current control loop and outer voltage loop. Sliding mode current controller provides desired bandwidth for voltage controller which consists of a state feedback term for stabilization and resonant term for harmonic damping. The proposed scheme provides fast dynamic response and low total harmonic distortion even for high power inverters with the limitations of switching frequency and LC filter components. Experimental studies for 2KVA linear and... 

A new, simple, fast and reliable solid-phase extraction method has been developed for separation/preconcentration of trace amounts of Pb(II) using dithizone/sodium dodecyl sulfate-immobilized on alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles, and its determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) after eluting with 4.0 mol L -1 HNO 3. Optimal experimental conditions including pH, sample volume, eluent concentration and volume, and co-existing ions have been studied and established. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the preconcentration factor, detection limit, linear range and relative standard deviation of Pb(II)... 

For the 4th IUPAP International Conference of Women in Physics, we report on activities in science and engineering in Iran, and conditions for women in physics, in the three years since the 3rd IUPAP International Conference of Women in Physics was held in 2008. Iran has made prominent advancements and astonishing progress in laser technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, genetics, computer software and hardware, and robotics. Iranian scientists have been very productive in several experimental fields, such as pharmaceutical, organic, and polymer chemistry. Conditions for women in physics have improved greatly in recent years. A project to improve the environment for learning physics, and... 

The lead is a heavy metal with hazardous impacts on environment and human life. Lead-free perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention in recent years, due to eco-friendly characteristics. Meanwhile, Pb-containing cells showed the highest efficiencies among the various types of cells. Hence, designing novel Pb-free solar cells with comparable or better performance than the Pb-containing ones is highly required. In this work, a lead-free methyl-ammonium-germanium-iodide (MAGeI3)-based perovskite solar cell with ITO/TiO2/MAGeI3/Spiro-OMeTAD/Ag multilayer nanostructure has been proposed and its main characteristics including open-circuit voltage (VOC) and power conversion efficiency (η)... 

Core/shell structure of ZnO nanowires coated with a monolayer of TiO 2 is investigated using Density Functional Theory (DFT). The electronic states of the semiconductor is calculated and compared before and after coating of the TiO2 monolayer on a ZnO [101 0] surface. The effect of TiO2 coating induce surface states changes and shifts the conduction and valence band edges to higher energies. Our results, in qualitative agreement with the experimental work of Matt Law et al. (J. Phys. Chem. B, 110, 22652), show an increase in open circuit voltage and a decrease in short circuit current in ZnO/TiO2 core shell dye sensitized solar cells. Regarding the semiconductor density of states (DOS), TiO2... 

Due to the important role of commitment and trust in the relationship marketing, the factors which can directly result in a committed relationship along with the factors which can influence the commitment through influencing trust, according to the model of commitment and trust by (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) have been introduced and their level of importance has been investigated here. The article uses fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) in the proposed model to find the most important paths leading to relationship commitment. The FCM analyzes the responses of a group of 30 people including general practitioners in dentistry, managers of dental departments in some of the public clinics and hospitals who... 

Conventionally, a film of TiO2 particles of 300 nm size is employed in Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) as the back reflector film to enhance the light harvesting. Perfect reflectance of silver in visible and near infrared motivates to investigate its potential as the material for the light back reflector film in DSCs. In this study, light back reflector films consisting of 300 nm-sized silver particles, as well as vacuum evaporated silver flat film, were fabricated and compared to 300 nm-sized rutile-type TiO2 particulate reflector film to study their optical aspects. Conventional TiO2 rutile-type particulate film demonstrates slightly lower performance... 

Monolithic dye-sensitized solar cells are conventionally fabricated using carbon composite layer as the counter electrode. In the current research, the brittle carbon composite layer is replaced with a metal foil, aiming to decrease the device series resistance and using less catalyst material in counter electrode. This metallic structure has also an advantage of mechanical strength and decreases the fabrication complexity. The counter electrode is prepared by electrodepositing Cr film followed by electrodepositing Pt nanoparticles on a metal foil. As the porous spacer layer, different composite layers of SiO2, TiO2, and Al2O3 are investigated and the best results are obtained for TiO2... 

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been a potential green energy source for a long time but one of the problems is that either the technology must be used on a large scale or special equipment have been necessary to keep the fuel cells running such as syringe pumps. Paper-based microbial fuel cells do not need to have a syringe pump to run and can run entirely by themselves when placed in contact with the fluids that are necessary for it to run. Paper-based microbial fuel cells are also more compact than traditional MFCs since the device doesn't need any external equipment to run. The goal of this paper is to develop a microbial fuel cell that does not require a syringe pump to function. This... 

This paper proposes a novel decentralized control approach for islanded direct-current (DC) microgrids (MGs) based on model predictive control (MPC) to regulate the distributed generation unit (DGU) output voltages, i.e. the voltages of the point of common coupling (PCC). A local controller is designed for each DGU, in the presence of uncertainties, disturbances, and unmodeled dynamics. First, a discrete-time state-space model of an MG is derived. Afterward, an MPC algorithm is designed to perform the PCC voltage control. The proposed MPC scheme ensures that the PCC voltages remain within an acceptable range. Several simulation studies have been conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of... 

Sophisticated surgeons are widely indicating the use of surgical robots in order to reject human error, increase precision, and speed. Among well-known robotic mechanisms, parallel robots are broadly more investigated regarding their special characters as higher acceleration, speed, and accuracy, and less weight. Specific surgical procedures confine, and restrict their workspace, while controlling and validating the robots are complicated regarding to their complex dynamic. To this end, in this paper, a 6-DOF robot, with rotary manipulators, is designed and controlled. Addressing nonlinearity of parallel robots, an innovative methodology is formulated to robustly penalize the error of... 

Sophisticated surgeons are widely indicating the use of surgical robots in order to reject human error, increase precision, and speed. Among well-known robotic mechanisms, parallel robots are broadly more investigated regarding their special characters as higher acceleration, speed, and accuracy, and less weight. Specific surgical procedures confine and restrict their workspace, while controlling and validating the robots are complicated based on their complex dynamic. To this end, in this paper, a 6-DOF robot, with linear manipulators, is designed and controlled. Addressing the inherent nonlinearity of the robot mechanism, an adaptive PID manipulator is employed and validated with nonlinear...