Sharif Digital Repository

The main object of the presented thesis is manufacturing ultra high molecular weight polyethylene(UHMWPE)/Graphene nanocomposites by insitu polymerization using Ziegler Natta catalysts. In this study, three types of Ziegler Natta Catalysts such as Magnesium ethoxide supported, single-supported and bi-supported have been studied. Experimental conditions are optimized (from point of productivity and molecular weight) by Design expert software with response surface methodology (Box-Behnken design). Effect of process parameters like temperature, pressure and [Al]/[Ti] molar ratio on productivity and Molecular weight are investigated. Also, the effect of hydrogen presence and type of cocatalyst... 

This thesis was conducted both numerically and experimentally. In the experimental investigations aqueous solutions of high molecular weight Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) was used. The experimental set-up was composed of a glass syringe, and a piston which can easily move through the syringe. Different die with aspect ratio ranging from 5.25 to 28.8 can be attached to the syringe. The syringe then is filled with the CMC solution with different weight fractions. Then using a force exerting on the piston, the solution comes out of the die and exiting velocity was calculated from weight of CMC solution that exit from die in a definite time. High quality photographs were taken from extrudate... 

Today, energy crises and the environmental pollution have become serious problems for the human being. To address these problems, extensive efforts have been made to replace fossil fuels with other clean energy resources such as fuel cells. In the meantime, polymer electrolyte fuel cells are very important as they are now commonly used in the field of transportation, and their importance become even more obvious as we consider the fact that the by-products from electricity production by such cells are simply water and heat. This research studies the efficiency of the polymer called “polysulfone” as an electrolyte fuel cell, which has the above named mechanical thermal and chemical... 

In this study, surface modification of Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes was performed in order to enhancement of its performance and chlorine resistance. TFC membranes was prepared through the interfacial polymerization between m-phenylenediamine (MPD) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) on the polysulphone support membrane and surface modification performed through redox initiated graft polymerization of acrylic amide followed by acrylic acid. The successful surface modification of TFC membranes was evident from attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), contact angle (θ), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). Changes in... 

This study investigated the effect of oxidized molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets on the anti-corrosion and rheological properties of epoxy resin. Raw MoS2 sheets were obtained as layered nanosheets with a thickness of 50 to 100 nm using acid washing, oxidation, and heat shock methods. The use of nanoparticle characterization tests such as XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDS, and TGA supports this claim. Then, in the next step, epoxy coatings containing different percentages (0, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8, and 1.5 wt%) of MoS2 nanosheets were prepared with polyamide hardener to investigate the effect of adding nanosheets and the optimal percentage. The best effect on the corrosion properties of the coating in a... 

In the present work, the experiments were carried out for two types of PAM (3330 and 3630) with three distinct concentrations (25, 40 and 55 ppm) and TiO_2-water nanofluid for four concentrations (1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 vol. %), and the Nusselt number and friction factor for each of them expressed separately. The Reynolds number was in the range from 11000 to 21000. The steady state turbulent convective heat transfer and friction factor of the combination of TiO_2-water nanofluid and polymer 3330 in the coiled tube were investigated. The effects of the Reynolds number for 2 vol. % nanoparticles which consists of 25 ppm PAM (3330) determined at the constant temperature of 24°C. It was observed... 

Nervous system plays an intricate biological process of man body.Damage of nervous system has serious consequences and is hard to recover, as well as the other parts of the body may not work properly. Many strategies have been used to repair spinal cord injuries in which the main objective is to improve the regeneration of axons and functional recovery. The purpose of this research is introducing neural tissue engineering concepts (e.g. scaffolds, stimulation and etc.) and also design and fabrication suitable for neural tissue engineering. For this purpose the combination of biodegradable polymers (chitosan),conductive polymer (poly-aniline) and carbon nanosheets (graphene) was chosen as the... 

Constant drilling in the shale formation causes many problems such as shale swelling and well instability. Annually many costs are spent dealing with these problems in the drilling industry. Many factors can affect this issue. The most important factor is the type of drilling fluid and its additives. The use of oil-based mud is the best option to deal with the clays instability but, due to environmental problems resulting from OBM, their use has been banned in most parts of the world. Therefore, the water-based mud is the only option for the oil industry that can modify its property by use of additives. In this study, the muds contain Nano silica have been introduced. Silicate as shale... 

Hydrophilic polymers are widely used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes to increase water viscosity during polymer flooding. However, these polymers increase the viscosity of injected water in undesirable strands, before reaching considerable positions that make some problems in polymer flooding process such as thermal, mechanical, bacterial degradation, surface absorption and undesirable plugging. In this study, a novel core-shell structure of polyacrylamide as an active polymer and nanoscale coating polystyrene as a shell polymer was designed and prepared to intelligently control mobility ratio in oil reservoirs and overcome weakness and limitations of classical polymer flooding.... 

The main object of this thesis is production and investigation of polypropylene-fumed silica nanocomposites by using bi-supported Ziegler-natta catalytic system and in-situ polymerization. Magnesium ethoxide and fumed silica were used as supports of catalyst. TiCl4 was accompanied by triisobutyl aluminum(TiBA) and diisobutyl phthalate(DIBP) as electron doner constituting Ziegler-Natta catalytic system. Preparation of catalyst and polymerization were taken place in slurry phase under the argon atmosphere. At the beginning of the polymerization experiment, several type of nanocomposites were made under various conditions(such as different Al/Ti molar ratio) to find optimum condition to... 

In the current study, design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel conductive nanocomposite scaffold for nerve tissue engineering applications is reported. For this purpose, the highly conductive polyaniline/graphene nanocomposite (PAG) was synthesized via emulsion polymerization, used for fabrication of conductive chitosan/gelatin/PAG scaffolds, and the effect of PAG amount on the various properties of scaffolds were investigated. The synthesized graphene, polyaniline, and PAG were characterized and the obtained results revealed that partially exfoliated graphene nanosheets and highly conductive PAG with a conductivity of about 12 S.cm-1 and 7 S.cm-1, respectively were obtained. The... 

Most of residual oil is difficult to displace and recover during water flooding process. One of the most important chemical flooding processes is polymer flooding that can improve microscopic and macroscopic sweep efficiency. Since, a large percent of reservoirs rocks is consisted of the dead ends in which oil remains immobile during water flooding, study of sweep efficiency from dead ends is important to improve oil recovery efficiency. In this study, effects of polymer flooding on oil recovery from dead end in glass micromodel have been studied experimentally and obtained results are compared with those of simulation of polymeric fluids in this micromodel. A correlation has been presented... 

Polymer flooding can yield considerable increase in percentage recovery. However, there are limitations with the existing polymer flooding technology, such as thermal, mechanical, bacterial degradation, surface absorption and undesirable plugging. A novel nanocore shell structure of polyacrylamide and polystyrene designed and prepared to intellectually control mobility ratio in oil reservoirs and overcome weakness and limitations of classical polymer flooding. Polyacrylamide particles have been obtained using spray drying of dilute solution of polyacrylamide. Then, polystyrene shell has been produced on polyacryamide particles by in-situ polymerization of styrene monomer in hydrophobic... 

There are so many problems in using of petroleum-based polymers such as their stability in the environment. According to the research carried out on this problem, one of the best ways to overcome this hardship is using of bio-based polymers. The most important bio-based polymer is polylactic acid. The very polymer enjoys the best mechanical properties but it is so expensive that make it impossible to afford. Therefore, in this project, a nano-composite structure of polylactic acid with thermoplastic starch reinforced with nano-particles was produced. After manufacturing, the process of mixture and the best percent for the very mixture for its use in packaging industry were investigated  

The nervous system is the most important communication machine in body which regulates the function of other organs. Peripheral nerves in contrary to central nervous system have the potential for regeneration, but regrowth requires proper environmental conditions and supporting growth factors. Tissue engineered scaffolds create a suitable milieu for disconnected axon to regenerate. The aim of this study in the first stage is the fabrication of nanostructured of conductive polymers (graphene and polyaniline) within a bed of gelatin polymer and then conducting some analyses including conductance, degradation rate and tensile test besides morphological analyses of fibers through SEM and... 

This project is devoted to experimental investigation of increasing on production of polyethylene/clay nanocomposites (PECNs) and polypropylene/clay nanocomposites (PPCNs) via in-situ polymerization method. First of all we produced bi-supported Ziegler-Natta catalyst to polymerized polyolefins nanocomposites. Bentonite type clay and Magnesiumethoxide (Mg (OEt)2) were used as the support of Tetrachloridetitanium (TiCl4). Catalyst support and polymerization process have been done in slurry phase using Triisobutylaluminum (TiBA) as the co-catalyst. The efficiency of preapared bi-supported Ziegler-Natta was reasonably high (average 200 (gr. Product/mmol Ti. h) for PECNs and 195 (gr. Product/mmol... 

With the environmental concerns and scarce supply of the crude oil, a revival in the development of bio-based and compostable materials is coming. They are in general being called the ''green'' materials, among which poly(lactic acid) (PLA) got the most extensive attention due to its good combined properties, including the renewable feedstock, the compostability, and its good mechanical properties, especially the young's modulus and stiffness. PLA has found numerous applications. It is considered having the highest potential to replace some regular petroleum based plastics. However PLA has its own shortcomings, its brittleness, low heat distortion temperature and relatively high cost witch... 

The main object of this thesis is synthesizing poly(vinyl acetate)/ colloidal silica nanocomposites via emulsion and in-situ polymerization methods. At the first, nanocomposites were produced in the presence of poly(vinyl alcohol) as the protective colloid, ammonium persulphate as the initiator and sodium bicarbonate as the buffer in an aqueous solution. Then, structural, thermal, rheological, mechanical and surface properties of produced nanocomposites with various colloidal silica content (0.5 %, 1 %, 1.5 %) were evaluated by DLS, FTIR, SEM-EDS, DSC, TGA, dynamic and steady rheological tests, tensile and shear mechanical tests, AFM and static water contact angle. The particle size of...