Sharif Digital Repository

A modified in-tube solid phase microextraction (SPME) technique in conjunction with a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for the trace determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water samples. The extraction device contained a regular HPLC syringe, replacing the metallic needle by two concentric fused silica capillary tubes. The capillary tubes were coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the sorbent and were attached to the syringe by a homemade interface made from polyether ether ketone (PEEK). The sorption of analytes was achieved by frequent withdrawing and ejecting the water sample from/into a vial via the capillary tubes. For the desorption... 

This paper presents the fuzzy logic computing for the design and implementation of fuel controller for gas turbine engines. For this purpose, a fuzz controller is designed in order to be implemented on an electronic control unit where it is used to drive a servo operated fuel control valve. The fuzzy logic computing approach for different parts of the controller including fuzzification, rule base, inference engine and defuzzification are then described. Finally, computer simulation of the fuzzy controllers integrated with the engine model is performed to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed fuzzy controller on the performance of a turbojet engine. The results are provided to show... 

An immersed solvent microextraction (SME) method was successfully developed for the trace enrichment of aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides from aquatic media. A microdrop of toluene was used as the extraction solvent. Some important extraction parameters such as type of solvent, solvent dropsize, stirring rate, ionic strength and extraction time were investigated and optimized. The microdrop volume of 1.5 μL, a sampling time of 25 min, and use of toluene were major parameters for achieving high enrichment factors. The linearity was studied by preconcentration of 4 mL of the water samples spiked with a standard solution of aryloxyphenoxypropionates at the concentration range of 0.15 to 30 ng... 

We experimentally demonstrate a circularly polarized antenna that utilizes unidirectional surface waves that propagate on the boundary of a small ferrite disk. The ferrite disk is metalized on top and is mounted on a grounded dielectric substrate. The disk is normally biased by a magnetic field that is provided by two permanent magnets below and above the structure. A two-section feeding network is used to feed the antenna. The operation frequency of the antenna can be adjusted by changing the magnitude of the applied magnetic bias. The sense of polarization can be reversed by reversing the direction of the applied bias. © 2020 Elsevier B.V  

Two types of conventional rubber modifiers and a series of hollow plastic micro-spheres were employed as toughening agents in a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy in Part I (Bagheri R, Pearson RA. Polymer 1996;37:4529) of this study. It was found that the rubber modifiers with different cavitation resistance and hollow plastic micro-spheres which act as pre-existing microvoids toughen epoxies in the same manner. The current study is composed to further examine the previous results in terms of the role inter-particle distance in rubber/microvoid toughened epoxies. It is shown that the fracture toughness in toughened blends goes through a ductile-to-brittle transition with... 

Platinum content of two commercial spent reforming catalysts were extracted in aqua-regia solutions under atmospheric pressure and at temperatures up to 100 °C. Three factors, including presence of coke, catalyst particle size, and impeller agitation speed were first tested to study the relative importance of mass-transfer resistances during Pt extraction reaction. Catalyst particle sizes < 100 μm and agitation speeds > 700 rpm eliminated the internal and external mass-transfer resistances, respectively. The effect of other factors, including HNO3-to-HCl volume ratio, liquid-to-solid mass ratio, and the reaction temperature on the extraction rate of platinum were then examined. Pt extraction... 

In this paper, performance of power system stabilizer (PSS) of a large thermal power plant, as tuned by the manufacturer, is investigated. Then, the stabilizer is redesigned based on extended phase compensation of the exciter input - electrical torque transfer function and root locus analysis; and its effect on local, interplant and inter-area electromechanical oscillations is thoroughly analyzed. As Bisotoun PSS has a special structure with two inputs, frequency and power, its performance is compared with power-speed PSS. The effect of PSS with existing and new tunings on transient stability is also studied. Simulation results are verified by experimental test records. © 2007 JD  

A high-throughput solid-phase microextraction (SPME) on 96-well plate together with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed for the determination of some selected pesticides in cucumber samples. Pieces with the length of 1.0cm of silicon tubing were precisely prepared and then coated on the end part of stainless steel wires. The prepared fibers were positioned in a home-made polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-based constructed ninety-six holes block to have the possibility of simultaneous immersion of the SPME fibers into the center of individual wells. Pesticides such as diazinon, penconazol, tebuconazol, bitertanol, malathion, phosalone and chlorpyrifos-methyl were selected... 

A novel solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was fabricated by electrospinning method in which a polymeric solution was converted to nanofibers using high voltages. A thin stainless steel wire was coated by the network of polymeric nanofibers. The polymeric nanofiber coating on the wire was mechanically stable due to the fine and continuous nanofibers formation around the wire with a three dimensional structure. Polyamide (nylon 6), due to its suitable characteristics was used to prepare the unbreakable SPME nanofiber. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of this new coating showed a diameter range of 100-200nm for polyamide nanofibers with a homogeneous and porous surface... 

Reinforced polydiphenylamine (PDPA) nanocomposite was synthesized by oxidation of diphenylamine in 4molL-1 sulfuric acid solution containing a fixed amount of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The surface characteristic of PDPA and PDPA/CNT nanocomposites was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The prepared PDPA/CNT nanocomposite was used as an extraction medium for microextraction in packed syringe (MEPS) of selected pesticides from aquatic environment. The effect of CNT doping level and the presence of surfactant on the extraction capability of nanocomposite was investigated and it was revealed that when 4% (w/w) of CNT in... 

1-D compound metallic grating (CMG) is a periodic structure with more than one slit in each period. When CMG is combined with a graphene sheet as its cover, the incident light is effectively coupled to the plasmons in graphene which in turn can result in strong manipulation of light for both major polarizations. We show that tunable phase resonance and perfect absorption of the incident light are interesting outcomes of this manipulation. In this paper, we demonstrate that fano-like phase resonances which can be observed in CMGs under transverse magnetic polarized incident wave are tuned by changing the Fermi level of graphene. It is shown that while the spectral position of the phase... 

An architectural modification method was utilized to improve fracture toughness of discontinuously reinforced aluminum (DRA) composites. Al-DRA composites having a structure similar to that of reinforced concrete were fabricated. The number of reinforcing DRA rods within Al matrix and volume fraction of SiC particles in DRA were altered to evaluate their effect on fracture behavior of these materials. It was found that architectural modification does not have any destructive influence on elastic modulus and yield strength of the composite. Moreover, the success of this method on toughness improvement strongly depends on the occurrence of debonding between Al and DRA regions upon loading  

In the current work, synthesis of an environmental-sensitive superabsorbent hydrogel using γ-rays is described. Grafted polyacrylonitrile onto a homogeneous solution of starch and kappa-Carrageenan hybrid backbones created a smart material with reversible behavior. The reaction parameters (i.e. acrylonitrile, starch and kappa-Carrageenan concentration, as well as γ-irradiation time) affecting the. water absorbency of the. hydrogel were optimized using the. Taguchi method, in order to achieve a hydrogel with high swelling capacity. FTIR spectroscopy was used for confirming the. structure of the final product and the morphology of the synthesized hydrogel was examined by a scanning electron... 

In this paper, the impact of three parameters including nanoparticles geometry, particles aggregation and borehole inclination on induced formation damage from water based drilling fluids were investigated by means of experimental studies. Accordingly, we designed a dynamic filtration setup capable to rotate and change well inclination. Nano-based drilling fluids consisting of spherical, cubical and tubular shapes nanoparticles as fluid loss additives were used. Mud cake quality, core permeability impairment and degree of formation damage at various well inclinations were examined. The cluster structure of aggregated particles were determined using fractal theory and applying dynamic light... 

A magnetic polyurethane (PU) nanocomposite was synthesized by an electrospinning technique and applied for isolation and preconcentration of fluoxetine from aquatic and biological samples. The nanocomposite was electrospun using a PU polymer solution containing the dispersed magnetic nanoparticles. The magnetic properties of iron nanoparticles, along with the use of an electrospinning technique, led to the formation of a suitable sorbent toward isolation of fluoxetine. The magnetic PU nanofibers could be subsequently removed from the sample solution by applying a permanent magnet. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the magnetic PU nanofibers confirms that their diameters are in... 

A solution of polyamide (PA) containing polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a side low-molecular-weight polymer was electrospun. After synthesizing the PA-PEG nanofibers, the constituent was subsequently removed (modified PA) and confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The scanning electron microscopy images showed an average diameter of 640 and 148 nm for PA and PA-PEG coatings, respectively, while the latter coating structure was more homogeneous and porous. The extraction efficiencies of PA, PA-PEG, and the modified PA fiber coatings were assayed by headspace solid-phase microextraction of a number of chlorophenols from real water samples followed by their determination by gas... 

A horizontally oriented liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction (HOLLLME) setup was developed and applied for the isolation of two major estrogens from aquatic media. In contrast to the conventional procedure, in this setup the extracting microdrop was suspended from a horizontally positioned needle in order to provide much higher stability to the extracting phase. The developed HOLLLME approach was applied to isolate two major selected estrogens from aquatic media followed by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) determination. Estrogens were, initially, extracted from water samples into hexane and subsequently, the back extraction stage was performed with 6 μL of sodium... 

A new method based on the combination of magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) and spectrofluorimetric determination was developed for isolation and preconcentration of fluoxetine form aquatic and biological samples using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) coated Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) as a sorbent. The unique properties of Fe 3O 4 NPs including high surface area and strong magnetism were utilized effectively in the MSPE process. Effect of different parameters influencing the extraction efficiency of fluoxetine including the amount of Fe 3O 4 and SDS, pH value, sample volume, extraction time, desorption solvent and time were optimized. Under optimized condition, the method was successfully... 

A new facile, rapid, inexpensive, and sensitive method based on magnetic micro-solid phase extraction (M-μ-SPE) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed for determination of the herbicide oxadiargyl in environmental water samples. The feasibility of employing non-modified magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as sorbent was examined and applied to perform the extraction process. Influential parameters affecting the extraction efficiency along with desorption conditions were investigated and optimized. The limit of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) and limit of quantification (LOQ, S/N = 10) of the method under optimized conditions were 0.005 and 0.030 ng mL-1, respectively. The...