Sharif Digital Repository

Different molybdenum oxide nano/micro structure thin films were synthesized by thermal evaporation method under various growth conditions such as deposition time, temperature and evaporation source-substrate distance. Molybdenum oxide nanostructures grown on Si(100) such as nanowalls, nanostars and nanowires were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Shape and type of nanostructures were determined with SEM, AFM and HRTEM analysis. XPS analysis showed that the synthesized nanostructures contained Mo6+, Mo5+, Mo4+ and... 

ZnO is a wide and direct band gap (3.37 eV) semiconducting material with a large exciton binding energy (60 meV). It has been extensively studied in the last few years owing to its potential applications in various fields such as surface acoustic wave devices (SAW), transparent electrode, solar cell windows, photovoltaic devices, gas sensors and photoelectrochemical cells. Recently, much attention has been paid to rare-earth (RE) doped ZnO for possible applications in visible emitting phosphors in displays, high power lasers, and other optoelectronic devices. In this thesis, initially ZnO thin films were deposited on glass and ITO substrates using sol-gel dip-coating method. Optical and... 

Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic applications of core-shell like ZnO@CdS nanorods have been studied in this research. The synthesis of core-shell like ZnO@CdS nanorods was carried out in three different steps. At first, ZnO seed layer was formed on glass substrate via sol-gel process under optimum conditions using absolute ethanol solution containing zinc acetate and a stabilizer ( either Monoethanolamine (MEA) or diethanolamine (DEA)). When MEA used as stabilizer, the optimum concentration of sol was found 0.2 M, while increasing the sol concentration caused the seed layer to be grown in a string-like structure. The RMS surface roughness of seed layer prepared by 0.2 M sol... 

Because of the working conditions of semiconductors at ambient temperature and pressure, degradation of organic pollutants through semiconductors photocatalysis has attracted the interest of many researchers. Because of its large exciton binding energy,high chemical and physical stability,high electron and hole mobility, and low cost; zinc oxide, an n-type semiconductor with 3.2 eV direct band gap, is widely used in applications such as photocatalysts, solar cells, and light-emitting diodes. Among various morphologies of ZnO, 1D nanostructures such as nanowires and nanorods have recieved much attention due to their high surface to volume ratio. However, the application of ZnO as a... 

In this research, two type of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have synthesized including, normal GQDs and nitrogen-doped GQDs (N-GQDs). Then, each of GQDs were deposited on the 1 dimensional zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures namely nanowires (NWs) and branched hierarchical (BH) systems. Then, photocatalytic activity of the samples were studied in photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) and methylene orange (MO) under visible light. First, ZnO nanowires (ZnO NWs) were fabricated by anodization of zinc sheet possessing wurtzite crystal structure with their average length and diameter measured in the range of 50-60 μm and 170-300 nm, respectively. Then, normal GQDs were synthesized by... 

hydrogen considered as one of clean energy carriers and is the most promising alternative to fossil fuels. The production of hydrogen from photoelectrochemical water splitting using titanium dioxide nanotubes arrays (TNA) as a photoanode has been of interest to many researchers in recent years. In this study, TNAs were fabricated with two-step anodic oxidation method at a constant applied voltage of 60 V DC. The fabrication process was performed for duration time of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 hours. Photoelectrochemical analysis for the fabricated samples shows that TNA prepared for 3 hours anodic oxidation time exhibited the highest current density of 1 mA.cm-2 at 0.5 V bias voltage (Optimized... 

WO3 have good electrochromic, gas sensor, photocatalyst, phoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. due its properties, tungsten oxide have many application in technology and industry. In this thesis, pure WO3 thin film and MWCNT-WO3 nanocomposite thin films with different weight percent of MWCNT/WO3 utilize for energy domain, particular hydrogen production with phoelectrochemical reactions spiliting water. For this purpose, initially WO3 thin films were deposited on glass and ITO substrates using sol-gel dip-coating method. Optical and surface properties of the films dried at 100ºC and annealed at 400 ºC had been investigated. UV-Visible spectrophotometer, atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray... 

World population growth, depletion of fossil fuels resources depletion and increased air pollution resulting from their consumption, human society has had to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources. In this context, the production of hydrogen using solar energy is feasible candidate to replace fossil fuels, which can be produced by water splitting in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell using an appropriate photocatalyst. This clean production method has been attended by many researchers in recent years. The most common photocatalyst for the conversion of sunlight to hydrogen by splitting water is Titanium dioxide (TiO2). But high energy gap and fast electron-hole recombination rate in TiO2... 

Ammonia (NH3) is the second most synthesized chemical in the world which is used about 80% for the production of chemical fertilizers. Industrial production of ammonia commonly relies on Haber-Bosch method that is produced from gaseous N2 and H2, at very high pressure (200-400 atm) and high temperature (400-600oC) on the surface of an iron-based catalyst. But due to required high pressure and temperature researchers are looking for alternative methods that are environmentally friendly. In this research, we applied electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) used nickel oxide (NiO) deposited on nickel foam substrate by hydrothermal method. The prepared samples were treated by nitrogen... 

In this project, the photoelectrochemical properties of ZnO nanostructures modified by CdS and Graphene was studied. Firs, titanium foil was cut into rectangular shape with 1cm width and 3 cm length, cleaned by rinsing in acetone and ethanol and annealed at 4000C for an hour. As a result, a thin layer of titanium oxide was formed on Ti sheet. Then a layer of grapheme oxide was deposited on substrate using Electrophoretic deposition (EPD). After that, ZnO nanostructure was deposited on the TiO2 substrate using Electropulsation (EP) with 20 consecutive pulse followed by 3 minutes Electrodeposition (ED). Using SEM analysis, the morphology of ZnO was determined to be nanopetals in which the... 

In this study, growth of MWCNTs in form of thin film and powder for hydrogen storage was investigated. Different analytical techniques including SEM, TEM, STA, XRD, XPS, BET, BJH and Raman spectroscopy were applied to characterize the samples. The results showed that substrate, catalyst thickness and type of catalyst are influenced in yield of the growth, structure and quality of MWCNTs. The study has also indicated that MWCNTs grown on Fe-Pd bimetallic catalyst with 25-75 proportion had the highest growth yield. Moreover, decreasing of the growth temperature from 970 to 920 oC produced single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with high quality (IG/ID = 15.8) and low growth yield.... 

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is important because of wide applications such as self cleaning surfaces and using in photoelectrochemical cells .Recent researches have shown that addition of silicon dioxide into TiO2 increases hydrophilicity of SiO2-TiO2 and improves surface properties. Until now a little research has been done on the double layer TiO2/SiO2 system; therefore, this system is suitable for studying. In general this thesis consists of theoretical and experimental parts .In the experimental part, multilayer systems of SiO2/TiO2/Glass have been selected (thickness of SiO2 is 20 nm) and surface morphology and hydrophilicity have been investigated by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and... 

Relying on current fuels and technologies in vehicle industry in recent years has led to an enormous challenge such as air pollution, climate change and energy security. In the other hand, fossil fuel reservoirs are being depleted with an intensive rate. Nowadays, hydrogen, as a substitute for current fuels and hybrid, fuel cell and electric vehicles, as substitutes for current vehicular technologies are under research and development. Because of abundant advantages such as high efficiency and long cycle life, no depreciation for parts and scalability, fuel cell vehicles is of interest for many car manufacturers throughout the world and lots of them have demonstrated their prototype fuel... 

Supercapacitors represent a new class of energy storage devices that have been attracted many researchers in last few years. Graphene with unique properties such as superior electrical conductivity and large specific surface area is one of the most suitable materials in supercapacitor applications. Besides, metal oxides are being used as active compounds in supercapacitors due to their role in redox reactions. In this research, synthesis and characterization of supercapacitor electrodes based on graphene and MnO2 nanostructured materials was studied under different conditions. For this purpose, Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized by Hummers’ method and then, it was deposited on a nickel foam... 

Functional design of coating system for the primary mirror of the Iranian National Observatory (INO) is done. This telescope has a 3.4 m primary mirror in diameter, made of Zerodur from Schott. Although similar coating systems are in use since years ago, this is the first attempt to design a system for such a large surface case in Iran. Systematic approach led us first to clarify and identifying the design requirements. Lower limit of 80% for reflectance on all wavelength range from 325-1000 nm, thickness of 100 nm with un-uniformity of 5 nm, adhesion enough to pass the selotape test and surface roughness of less than 8 nm. Study of the available methods for coating and selection of the best... 

Given the population growth in the world and in dire need of electricity and to reduce pollution and moving toward sustainable development, renewable energy has special importance in the world. Iran, with 300 days of sunshine a year is one of the countries with high potential in the field of solar energy but for various reasons, solar energy has no significant role in our energy portfolio. Considering the purchase of solar power by the government, reduce solar electricity costs and payback time of the factors that could make greater use of this energy. In this projects using light splitting method, in addition to reducing cell area used, by removing a significant portion of the sun's rays... 

Wide utilization of nanomanipulation as a promising approach in microorganisms, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and assembly of nanostructures remarks the importance of nanostructures’ motion in electric fields. Despite of many reports on manipulation and assembly of nanowires (NWs) in non-uniform and alternating electric fields by dielectrophoresis, and also rotation of NWs in rotating electric fields, there is still a lack of knowledge on rotational and translational dynamics of metallic and dielectric NWs in uniform static electric fields. In this dissertation, we study the dynamics of silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) NWs, with diameters and lengths in the range of 40 to 100... 

According to the growth in the world population and the decrease in fossil fuels resources and also according to the pollution caused by these unrenewable resources, using hydrogen as an alternative energy resource seems to be unavoidable. In the past decades, semi-conductor metal oxides were being used widely in the energy domain of study, due to their appropriate band gap in the ultra-violet and visible spectra. Among these metal oxides, ZnO has been under special attention because of its electron mobility and its reasonable production cost and also its friendliness to environment. But the high band gap of ZnO (3.2 eV) has impeded its use in visible light spectrum. In this project,... 

The sustainable development in societies and the global energy challenge requires usage of clean energy systems that have attracted the attention of many researchers in recent decades. One of the major challenges in generating renewable resources is the problem of energy storage and imbalance between supply and demand cycles. Hydrogen as one of the clean energy carriers and due to having the highest energy density in terms of weight, is one of the important research topics. From this point of view, the preparation of electrocatalysts for hydrogen production, based on available materials, via simple and environmentally friendly production methods, was considered in this research.... 

Doping metal or semiconductor nanoparticles in transparent matrix have attracted much attention for practical application in recent years. From fundamental veiw point, limiting the charge carriers and exitons in nanometric scales resulted in new quantum phenomena. In this context, transparent films containing metal nanoparticles shows an absorption peak in visible region of spectrom. Thus, by choosing an appropriate metal and controlling the size and concentration of particles in corresponding matrix, we can provide coatings with a wide rang of colors. Furthermore, thin films containing metal or metal oxide nanoparticles had been considered as nanostructure materials in research and...