Sharif Digital Repository

Concentration procedures have always been implemented when trace analysis of compounds in real matrices is contemplated. A variety of concentration strategies have been reported aiming at decreasing the limits of detection (LODs). The optical concentration of the substance in solution is one of the novel concepts for the enhancement of the analytical sensitivity. In this study, the optical concentration has been measured by the trapping of gold nanoparticles ((Formula presented.) nm) dispersed in water at low-concentrations at the focal volume of the laser beam. The influence of factors such as the time of gold nanoparticle trapping, the size of the nanoparticles, the intensity of the laser... 

Membrane deformation is a necessary step in a number of cellular processes such as filopodia and invadopodia formation and has been shown to involve membrane shaping proteins containing membrane binding domains from the IRSp53-MIM protein family. In reconstituted membranes the membrane shaping domains can efficiently deform negatively charged membranes into tubules without any other proteins present. Here, we show that the IM domain (also called I-BAR domain) from the protein ABBA, forms semi-flexible nanotubes protruding into Giant Unilamellar lipid Vesicles (GUVs). By simultaneous quantification of tube intensity and tubular shape we find both the diameter and stiffness of the nanotubes.... 

Gradual chemical (displacement) reaction between CuO and Al powders during high-energy attrition milling under a high purity argon atmosphere was studied. Differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques were employed to study the solid-state reaction. It was shown that the solid-state reaction occurred during mechanical alloying (MA) and resulted in the dissolution of copper into the aluminum lattice and formation of nanometric alumina particles. The reinforcement particles were mostly distributed at the grain boundaries of Al matrix with an average crystallite size of about 50 nm. In DTA curve of the milled powders, a small... 

Damage tolerance improvement has been reported by laminating aluminum alloys and composites by researchers. Three-layer laminates comprising Al6061 outer layers and Al1050 interlayer have been roll bonded in this research. While most of the works done have focused on fracture properties of roll bonded Al laminates in crack arrester geometry, this study explores their behavior in crack divider configuration. Rolling strain is varied to control the interfacial bonding in laminates. The fracture behavior of laminates and the constituent material was examined via three-point bending and impact tests. This study presents significant improvement in damage tolerance of laminates compared to their... 

In this work, the feasibility of friction stir lap welding an aluminium alloy (Al-5083) to the aluminium clad steel sheet was studied. The welded joints were characterised by various methods including shear-tensile test and optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that sound and defect free joints were obtained. The fracture loads of the samples reached up to 94% compared with that of the steel base metal. Moreover, the joint strength linearly increased with the decrease in thickness of the aluminium layer roll bonded on the steel sheet. It was also shown that welding rotation and travel speed variation did not considerably impact the fracture loads in the... 

Al-1100/St-12 aluminum clad steel sheets were produced using roll bonding process at different reductions in thickness and with various supplemental annealing treatments. Experiments were conducted by applying the Taguchi method to obtain optimum condition for maximizing the joint strength. The joint strengths of the bi-layer sheets were evaluated by peel test. The Al/Fe intermetallic phases at the joint interface and the peeled surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Vickers microhardness test were performed to characterize the intermetallic compounds. The results indicate that at the optimum condition of 0.50 reduction in... 

Copper-graphite composites which have low friction coefficient can be used as bearing materials in lieu of materials containing lead which cause environmental problems. So far, some methods such as powder metallurgy and centrifugal casting have been employed to produce these composites. In this study, friction stir processing (FSP) was used to produce copper-graphite surface composites. Five tools with different pin profile were employed in order to achieve a comprehensive dispersion. Results show that the tool with triangular pin gives rise to a better dispersion of graphite particles. Furthermore, four copper-graphite composites containing different graphite content were prepared using... 

A commercial gas-atomized aluminum powder was mechanically milled in a planetary ball mill under an argon atmosphere for 12 h to produce alumina dispersion strengthened aluminum powder. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that about 2 vol.% alumina particles with an average size of 100 nm were distributed in the aluminum matrix. The nanocomposite powder was canned in an aluminum container, vacuum de-gassed, and hot extruded at 723 K at an extrusion ratio of 16:1. The creep behavior of the extruded billet in the direction of extrusion was examined at a constant applied load ranging from 10 to 40 MPa at temperatures of 648, 673 and 723 K. A threshold creep-stress was noticed which... 

The creep behavior of particulate Al-5vol.% SiC composite was investigated. The composite powder was produced by mechanical milling and hot extruded at 450°C at the ratio of 16:1. A creep test was carried out at a constant load at 598, 648, and 673 K. Using the existing equations proposed for the steady-state creep of metals, the threshold stress and the stress exponent of the creep as a function of temperature were determined. The stress exponent was found to be 3 at the temperature of 673 K and 8 at the lower temperatures, i.e. 598 and 648 K. The dependency of the threshold stress to temperature obeys the Arrhenius relationship with the energy term of 29 kJ mole-1  

The consolidation behavior of composite powders during pressure cycling at room temperature in uniaxial compaction experiments was studied and compared with monotonic compaction. Aluminum and various amounts of SiC powders (up to 50 vol%) were used to investigate the effect of hard reinforcement particle on the densification of soft aluminum matrix. The cyclic compaction was carried out at various pressure amplitudes, ranges from 90 to 360 MPa, at the frequency of 1 Hz. The pressure cycling was continued up to 5000 cycle, in which, the rate of consolidation was found to be fairly low. The consolidation of the composite powders under different loading modes was analyzed through... 

A great amount of work has been done over the past few years to understand the structure-properties relationship in polypropylene/glass fiber composites. This is because of the very fast-growing rate of polypropylene applications in the automotive and other industries. This work focused on the role of glass fibers and fiber-matrix adhesion on deformation mechanism. Composites with different fiber content, with and without adhesion promoter, were fabricated. Tensile tests and microscopy techniques were conducted. Based on the results, a physical model has been proposed that illustrates the initiation and growth of the damage under static loading condition. According to this work, the... 

In recent decades, great attention has been devoted to the toughening of isotactic poly(propylene) (PP) with elastomers such as ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR). The most important reasons for this interest are the moderate cost and favorable properties of PP. This article is focused on the role of EPR in the deformation and fracture mechanism of PP/EPR blends with different volume fractions of elastomer phase. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile tests, and microscopy techniques were used in this study. The fracture mechanism of isotactic PP toughened by EPR (PP/EPR) has also been studied by three point bending (3-PB) and four point bending (4-PB) tests. Rubber particle... 

Architectural modification of aluminum matrix composites is considered as an efficient method to improve fracture toughness. Al-DRA (Al-Al/SiC/20 p) composites were fabricated via "powder extrusion-casting- ingot extrusion" route with structures similar to that of reinforced concrete, so that DRA rods were surrounded by unreinforced aluminum. The effects of variation in shape, size, and number of DRA rods on fracture behavior of Al-DRA composites were investigated. Composites containing DRA rods with hexagonal cross-section exhibited higher resistance to crack initiation and growth, in comparison to those containing circular rods. In the case of hexagonal rods, increasing the number of rods... 

This paper presents experimental results on the synthesis of nanostructured aluminium matrix nanocomposite powders by comilling of nanoscaled SiC and Al2O3 particles and micrometric aluminium powder. The effect of the nanometric reinforcement particles on the mechanical milling (MA) process of the soft matrix was studied by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy, laser particle size analyser and standard metallographic techniques. It was found that at the early stage of milling, the nanoparticles are smeared on the surface of the aluminium powder and thus do not significantly contribute in the MA process. As the milling continues, the hard... 

Iron-borosilicate soft magnetic composites are suitable magnetic materials for high temperature and high frequency applications. In this research two different techniques have been applied to fabricate these composites: uniaxial pressing following by sintering and spark plasma sintering. Different processing parameters including the content of borosilicate, the amount of compaction pressure and the size of iron particles have been evaluated through the study of microstructure and magnetic properties. The microstructural observations showed that the borosilicate is distributed on the iron grain boundaries enhancing the resistivity and causing the loss of eddy currents. Increasing the... 

Mixtures of aluminium powder and nanoscaled SiC particles (n-SiC) at various volume fractions of 0, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 are comilled in a high energy planetary ball mill under an argon atmosphere to produce nanocrystalline Al-SiC nanocomposites. High resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) method, laser particle size analysis and powder density measurement were used to study the morphological changes and microstructural evolution occurred during mechanical alloying. Al-SiC composite powder with microscaled SiC particles (1 μm) was also synthesised and characterised to examine the influence of reinforcement particle size on the milling process. It was found that...