Sharif Digital Repository

In the present study, we performed hydrothermal method as a simple and efficient route for the synthesis of rutile TiO 2 nanostructures in various concentrations of lithium hydroxide solutions. TiO 2 nanopowders with average sizes of 15 and 23 nm were prepared using 4 M and 7 M LiOH solutions. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), transmission electron microscope (FEG-STEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) analyses were used in order to characterize the obtained products and comparison of the morphology of the powders obtained in different concentrations of LiOH solvent. It was shown that alkali solution concentration has affected the crystallinity,... 

Galvanostatic method was used to electrodeposit Fe nanostructures on platinum electrodes as catalysts. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed flower-like Fe deposits with high surface area. Carbon nanotubes were grown on flower-like Fe nanostructures by chemical vapor deposition. The structure of the synthesized carbon nanotubes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. According to X-ray diffraction patterns, Fe was the only detected constituent of the deposited coating. The carbon nanotubes had small wall-thickness and wide hollow core  

Abstract Miscible carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding has become the most commonly and favorable approach in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) because of its high oil reservoir sweep efficiency and contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, it can significantly favor the asphaltene deposition, which leads to the wettability reversal and formation damage. A novel experimental setup was utilized to study asphaltene deposition on the model rock at reservoir condition. The evolution of asphaltene deposition was monitored by a microscope; then analyzed by image processing software to check the amount of deposited asphaltene and its size distribution at different... 

Steady State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP) based Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) can be great assistance for people suffering from physical disabilities due to their high accuracy, high speed, an acceptable number of possible targets, etc. Many researchers have managed to design such systems. Most of these BCIs utilize methods for frequency detection which cause the system to need a training phase for each new user, making the system a user-based one. That is why our goal was to design a BCI that not only has accuracy and speed comparable to similar systems, but also does not need any training phase and thus can be used by new users right away. Our final design got a mean accuracy of... 

Wettability is one of the most important factors which significantly influences solar still efficiency. Moreover, it determines the condensation mode, i.e., filmwise or dropwise condensation. In the present study, materials with different wettability were applied as the condensing surface to evaluate the effect of wettability on the distillate production of a single slope solar still. To compare the effects of dropwise and filmwise condensation on the condensate yield, the wettability of the condensing surface was changed by applying a nano-silicon solution according to a dip coating technique. All the experiments were conducted at three surface inclination angles. The results revealed that... 

Supplier selection and order allocation are important keys for reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain networks especially with the presence of demand–supply imbalance risks. If such uncertainties and risks are not foreseen in the chain, and corresponding appropriate measures are not taken to handle them, irreparable damages would be expected consequently. The importance of this issue in closed-loop supply chains is more appreciated due to the importance and the effect of this chain on the environment. In this research, the disruption risk and the uncertainties related to the demand, market price, and the number of returned products are simultaneously considered. Purchasing from the... 

Solar stills are considered an environmentally friendly technique to produce fresh water. The condensation surface plays an essential role in controlling the efficiency of the solar still. This main parameter is critically affected by the wettability of the condensation surface that affects the condensation mechanism, namely drop-wise or film-wise condensation. This study aims to enhance the efficiency of solar stills by altering the surface wettability hence changing the condensation mechanism using nanomaterials. In this experimental work, different condensation surfaces were coated by silicone nanoparticles to change the condensation mechanism from film to dropwise. Scanning electron... 

To study the gas injection scenario for successful implementation of enhanced oil recovery (EOR)processes, the prediction of interfacial tension (IFT)between injected gas and the crude oil is of paramount significance. In the present study, some intelligent methods were developed for determining IFT values between supercritical CO2 and normal alkanes. IFT was considered as a function of temperature, pressure, and molecular weight of normal alkanes. The developed methods were Multilayer perceptron (MLP), Genetic Algorithm Radial Basis Function (GA-RBF), and Conjugate Hybrid-PSO ANFIS (CHPSO-ANFIS). The average absolute percent relative errors (AAREs)for the stated techniques were found to be... 

The condensation process is of great importance in many heat transfer devices in which a large amount of energy must be transferred. Furthermore, condensation is a crucial part of energy conversion and affects the energy efficiency of thermal desalination plants and solar stills. During the condensation process in solar stills, an essential part of the energy is transferred through the condensation surface to produce fresh water. Therefore, the condensation surface plays a significant role in the working efficiency of solar stills. The wettability of the condensation surface influences the condensation mechanism, which, in turn, affects the efficiency of solar stills. This study aims to... 

Carbon dioxide miscible flooding has become a popular method for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) because it not only efficiently enhances oil recovery but also considerably reduces green house gas emissions. However, it can significantly cause asphaltene deposition, which leads to serious production problems such as wettability alteration, plugging of the reservoir formation, blocking the transportation pipelines, etc. It is crucial to investigate the effects of different factors on asphaltene deposition. A novel experimental setup was prepared to employ a high-pressure visual cell for investigation of asphaltene deposition on a model rock under typical reservoir conditions. The evolution of... 

In this paper, we consider a dual-sourcing model with constant demand and stochastic lead times. Two suppliers may be different in terms of purchasing prices and lead-time parameters. The ordering takes place when the inventory level depletes to a reorder level, and the order is split among two suppliers. Unlike previous works in the order splitting literature, the supply lead time between vendor and buyer as well as unit purchasing prices is considered to be order quantity dependent. The proposed model finds out the optimal reorder point, order quantity and splitting proportion, using a solution procedure. Numerical results show that neglecting the relationship between ordering batch size... 

Adsorption of human serum proteins (Albumin and total protein) onto high purity synthesis nano-hydroxyapatite (HA), Ca 10(PO 4) 6(OH) 2, has been studied in a wide temperature range by UV-visible spectrophotometer. Adsorption isotherm is basically important to describe how solutes interact with adsorbent, andiscriticalinoptimizing the use of adsorbent. Inthe present study, the experimental results werefitted tothe Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (DR) models to obtain the characteristic parameters of each model and square of the correlation coefficients (R 2). According to the results, the DR isotherm model had the best agreement with the experimental data. The effect of... 

Three-dimensional (3D) bundles of self-assembled lanthanum hydroxide nanorods with average crystallite size of about 20 nm were fabricated via a facile and rapid microwave-assisted chemical route. The obtained material was characterized with X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations. The obtained nanorods have average diameter of about 115 nm and average length of about 730 nm. Self-assembly of primary La(OH)3 nanoparticles and their subsequent anisotropic growth along 〈2 0 0〉 direction, was proposed to be the mechanism for the formation of 3D bundles of nanorods, using TEM images. The thermal behavior of the... 

Once in biological fluids, the surface of nanoparticles (NPs) is rapidly covered with a layer of biomolecules (i.e., the "protein corona") whose composition strongly determines their biological identity, regulates interactions with biological entities including cells and the immune system, and consequently directs the biological fate and pharmacokinetics of nanoparticles. We recently introduced the concept of a "personalized protein corona" which refers to the formation of different biological identities of the exact same type of NP after being exposed to extract plasmas from individuals who have various types of diseases. As different diseases have distinct metabolomic profiles and... 

Self-assembled dandelion-like hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanostructures were successfully synthesized via a mild template-free hydrothermal process, using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as the surfactant. The obtained dandelion-like HAp nanostructures were between 5 and 8 μm in diameter and were composed of radially oriented nanorods with an average diameter of about 200 nm. The X-ray diffraction analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the crystalline phase and purity of the synthesized nanostructures. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of the dandelion-like nanostructures was measured to be about 39 m2/g. The results of thermal analysis revealed... 

Rosette-like boehmite nanostructures were prepared successfully via a simple hydrothermal process. The obtained material was characterized with X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Using Scherrer formula, the average crystallite size of the obtained boehmite rosettes was measured to be about 8 nm. It was shown that boehmite nanopetals with average width of about 41 nm determined by TEM, were formed during the hydrothermal process and then self assembled due to weak hydrogen bonds to fabricate boehmite rosettes. The specific surface area of the obtained rosette-like nanostructures was calculated through BET...