Sharif Digital Repository

Side weirs are widely used for level control and flow regulation in hydraulic engineering applications such as irrigation, land drainage, and sewer systems. These hydraulic structures allow a part of the flow to spill laterally when the surface of the flow in the main channel rises above the weir crest. The supercritical flow over a side-weir is a typical case of spatially varied flow with decreasing discharge. This study is aimed at investigating the variations of specific energy along the side-weir using experimental results. Some diagrams have been presented in terms of dimensionless ratio of diverted discharge to total discharge. These diagrams which can be used in the design of side... 

Here, controlled growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) on free-standing porous activated reduced graphene oxide (a-rGO) paper was fabricated using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. The electrochemical performance of prepared film was investigated to provide effective electrode for 3D flexible high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and supercapacitors. The results revealed that the prepared electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance of 347 F/g at 0.5 A/g in 1 M KOH electrolyte, 60% more than non-activated rGO-paper (218 F/g). The VACNTs on a-rGO have increased the accessible surface area and acted as efficient electrical conducting paths, which... 

Separators are one of the most critically important components of lithium-ion batteries to ensure the safe performance of the battery. Commercial polyolefin separators have high thermal shrinkage and low electrolyte uptake, which confines the application of the battery. By using the thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method, we successfully prepared HDPE/sepiolite nanocomposite separators with high thermal stability and electrolyte wettability. The sepiolite nanofibers are modified with the Vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) as a coupling agent for better dispersion and interaction in the HDPE matrix. The purpose of fabricating this separator is to decrease the thermal shrinkage and... 

The current paper reports the deposition of sulfur micro-particles using sulfur vapor deposition (SVD). Sulfur particles in size of 5 to 45 μm were deposited on a stainless steel substrate to be used as the cathode with porous structure in lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Mass loading of about 0.5 mg cm-2 was obtained from this pure sulfur cathode. The structure of this binder-free cathode was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The electrochemical performance of the battery with two different organic liquid ether- and carbonate-based electrolytes was investigated and the results demonstrated that the... 

In Li-ion batteries, application of active materials can enhance the kinetics of the charge-discharge process, reduce the costs and improve the safety of the system. In this work, the effect of nickel content and lithium excess in Li1+x (Ni0.4-xMn0.5Co0.1) O2 compounds on the electrochemical performance of the lithium-ion battery cathode have been studies. For this purpose, three compounds of NMC in the stoichiometric state were synthesized via co-precipitation as the cathode active material. XRF and EDS analyses indicate that precursors and oxide compounds are well synthesized. The final compound of synthesized cathodes was obtained by ICP analysis. XRD results also suggest that the... 

An intense decrease in cycling performance and safety is a challenge for elevated temperature application of LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 (NCM) cathode material. In this paper, effect of two types of nano-coatings on improvement of elevated temperature performance of NCM cathode material has been investigated. One of the coatings contains SiO2 nanoparticles and the other one contains composite of reduced graphene oxide and SiO2 nanoparticles (rGO-SiO2). The coatings were fabricated by a facile wet chemical method. The SiO2 coated cathode material showed an excellent elevated temperature cycling stability, however, a decrease in discharge capacity and rate capability of this sample was observed. On... 

LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) has been considered as a promising cathode for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high electrochemical capacity and low cost; however, poor cycling stability is one of the main restricting factors in industrial applications of the NCM811 cathode material. Notably, the capacity fading and low structural stability of NCM811 are intensified at elevated temperatures. ZrO2- and composite rGO-ZrO2-coated NCM811 were fabricated by a facile wet chemical method and evaluated at 25 and 55 °C to overcome these impediments. The ZrO2 coating provides superior cycling and thermal stability and perfectly protects the cathode active material from deleterious side reactions, and... 

SnO2 is considered as one of the high specific capacity anode materials for Lithium-ion batteries. However, the low electrical conductivity of SnO2 limits its applications. This manuscript reports a simple and efficient approach for the synthesis of Sb-doped SnO2 nanowires (NWs) core and carbon shell structure which effectively enhances the electrical conductivity and electrochemical performance of SnO2 nanostructures. Sb doping was performed during the vapor-liquid-solid synthesis of SnO2 NWs in a horizontal furnace. Subsequently, carbon nanolayer was coated on the NWs using the DC Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition approach. The carbon-coated shell improves the Solid-Electrolyte... 

Demand for high-capacity, long cycle life, and aqueous batteries based on abundant metals such as nickel, zinc, aluminum, and so on is rising in the energy storage field. In this study, we design a hierarchical morphology as a nanosheet-built microsphere of nickel vanadium layered double hydroxide (NiV LDH) with conductive agents graphene oxide (GO) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through a low-cost hydrothermal synthesis method. The experimental results demonstrate that the graphitic structures and functional groups of the GO and CNT play an important role in controlling nucleation, growth speed, size, and finally morphology of hierarchical nanosheets. The electrochemical results... 

Nitrates of lithium, cobalt and nickel are utilized to synthesize LiNi 0.8Co0.2O2 cathode material through sol-gel technique. Various synthesis parameters such as calcination time and temperature as well as chelating agent are studied to determine the optimized condition for material processing. Using TG/DTA techniques, the optimized calcination temperatures are selected. Different characterization techniques such as ICP, XRD and TEM are employed to characterize the chemical composition, crystal structure, size and morphology of the powders. Micron and nano-sized powders are produced using citric/oxalic and TEA as chelating agent, respectively. Selected powders are used as cathode material... 

Novel Na3MnCO3PO4 (NMCP)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite was successfully synthesized via one-step hydrothermal method. The produced materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetry (TG), galvanostatic charge/discharge test and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Obtained results indicate the formation of ∼25 nm NMCP nanoparticles randomly distributed on rGO sheets. As a promising cathode material for Na-ion batteries, the hybrids deliver gravimetric discharge capacities of... 

Here, we report 3D hierarchical SnO2 nanowire (NW) core-amorphous silicon shell on free-standing carbon nanotube paper (SnO2@a-Si/CNT paper) as an effective anode for flexible lithium-ion battery (LIB) application. This binder-free electrode exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 3020 mAh g-1 with a large reversible charge capacity of 1250 mAh g-1 at a current density of 250 mA g-1. Compared to other SnO2 NW or its core-shell nanostructured anodes, the fabricated SnO2@a-Si/CNT structure demonstrates an outstanding performance with high mass loading (∼5.9 mg cm-2), high areal capacity (∼5.2 mAh cm-2), and large volumetric capacity (∼1750 mAh cm-3) after 25 cycles. Due to the...