Sharif Digital Repository

In this work, an attempt was made to improve the distribution of CNTs in CNT/alumina nanocomposites. The composite powders containing 1 and 3vol% of CNTs were produced and calcined at 500°C for 2h. Surface coating with boehmite nanoparticles was used to improve CNT distribution in alumina matrix. Calcined powders were shaped into compacted samples by cold isostatic pressing at 180MPa and sintered at 1600°C for 2h in flowing gas atmosphere (95%Ar+5%H2). Phase analysis of the calcined composite powders showed complete transformation of boehmite into gamma-alumina. The maximum flexural strength was 465±31MPa corresponding to addition of 1vol% CNTs. Evaluating the fracture toughness via DCM... 

We studied the flow stress and microstructural changes of nanostructured Al-6063 alloy produced by mechanical alloying at various temperatures and strain rates. The analysis of flow curves was performed by a constitutive equation, and the stress exponent and activation energy were determined as functions of strain. The deformation mechanisms were elaborated through microstructural observations by electron backscattering diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Coarsening of the subgrains and grain growth upon deformation was monitored and related to the Zener–Hollomon parameter  

Nanostructured Cu and Cu-2 vol% SiC nanocomposite were produced by high energy mechanical milling and hot pressing technique. Microstructure development during fabrication process was investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, scanning transmission electron microscope, and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. The results showed that the microstructure of copper and copper-based nanocomposite composed of a mixture of equiaxed nanograins with bimodal and non-random misorientation distribution. The presence of SiC nanoparticles refined the grain structure of the copper matrix while the fraction of low angle grain boundaries was increased. Evaluation of mechanical... 

Nanostructured AA6063 (NS-Al) powder with an average grain size of ∼100 nm was synthesized by high-energy attrition milling of gas-atomized AA6063 powder followed by hot extrusion. The microstructural features of the consolidated specimen were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) techniques and compared with those of coarse-grained AA6063 (CG-Al) produced by hot powder extrusion of gas-atomized powder (without using mechanical milling). The consolidated NS-Al alloy consisted of elongated ultrafine grains (aspect ratio of ∼2.9) and equiaxed nanostructured grains. A high fraction (∼78%) of high-angle grain boundaries with average... 

We report the effect of gold nanoparticles on the sensitivity and selectivity of SnO2-based sensors for detection of CO in the presence of methane and C3H8, a model compound representing liquid petroleum gas (LPG). 1.0 wt% Au/SnO2 powder was prepared by a co-precipitation method. The powder formed was washed, dried at 150 °C, and calcined at 300 °C for 3 h. The BET surface area of SnO2 and Au/SnO2 was measured to be 210 and 110 m2/g, corresponding to 4 and 7.5 nm loose spherical particles, respectively. Responses of the Au/SnO2 and SnO2 sensors to 40-1000 ppm CO, 0.2-1.0% C3H8 and 1.0-3.0% CH4 were studied at 170-300 °C in an automated gas sensing system. In this temperature range, the... 

High-energy milling technique was used to synthesize Al-10 wt.%AlN-nanostructured composite powder in a planetary ball-mill under argon atmosphere up to 25 h. To show the role of AlN particles, process was conducted for monolithic aluminum. The changes in powder characteristics were investigated by time. Microstructure of powders was studied after different milling times by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The morphological evolutions showed that relative equiaxed powder could be synthesized after 25 h milling. Structural analysis was performed by X-ray diffraction method (XRD) to determine the grain sizes and lattice strain. Furthermore, particle size analysis (PSA) revealed the... 

We studied the effects of the surrounding liquid environment on the size and optical properties of silver nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser operated at 1.064 nm. The silver targets used were kept in acetone, water and ethanol. TEM observations and optical extinction were employed for characterization of particle size, shape and optical properties, respectively. Nano silver in acetone showed a narrow size distribution with a mean size of 5 nm and the colloidal solution was stable. In deionised water a rather narrow size distribution with a mean size of 13 nm was observed and nanoparticles were precipitated slowly after about two weeks. In ethanol, a broadening... 

In this study, the hardness inhomogeneity of billets during multi-passes of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at elevated temperatures is investigated and the effect of large strain deformation during ECAP on the hardness inhomogeneity characteristics due to dynamic aging of aluminum 6061 under a variety of temperatures and ram speed was studied by TEM and hardness measurements. The hardness results showed that the hardness distribution is more homogenous after four passes using the pressing route Bc. However, when the deformation temperature was considered, performing ECAP at 100 C may provide the most homogeneous microstructure after multi-pressing as long as the total number of... 

When properties of the displacing fluid are considered, the rising profile of the penetrating fluid in a capillary tube deviates from its classical Lucas-Washburn profile. Also, shape of capillary tube can affect the rising profile in different aspects. In this article, effect of capillary tube's shape on the vertical capillary motion in presence of gravity is investigated by considering the properties of the displacing fluid. According to the fact that the differential equation of the capillary rising for a non-simple wall type is very difficult to solve analytically, a finite element simulation model is used for this study. After validation of the simulation model with an experiment that... 

In this work, we have studied single-texture formation of CoSi2 layer in heat-treated Co/Ta0.7W0.3/Si(100) structure. Moreover, self-encapsulation process of the CoSi2 layer and surface roughness of the encapsulated layer, as a contact layer, has been examined. A direct current magnetron co-sputtering technique was employed to deposit a 10 nm Ta0.7W0.3 alloy intermediate layer. After growth of the layer on the Si substrate, a 25 nm Co layer was deposited using thermal evaporation method. Post-annealing process of the films was treated in an N2(80%) + H2(20%) ambient in a temperature range from 400 to 1000 °C for 60 min. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that a single-texture CoSi2 layer with... 

The purpose of this work is to interpret cardiotocograph recordings by estimating kubli score in order to find out the presence of antepartum morbidity in cardiotocograph (CTG) recordings. The Kubli score is a tool used to evaluate a non-stress test (NST). It works very much like an Apgar Score in that there are 5 criteria to be assessed, baseline rate, amplitude of fluctuations, frequency of fluctuations, deceleration and acceleration pattern, and each will be assigned a score of 0, 1, or 2, for a maximum total of 10. The advantage of the Kubli score is that it is systematic and specific. This communication tool helps clinicians to have a visual image of the immediate fetal status. Using... 

The anatase phase of titania was stabilised with physically modifying particulate sol-gel process. Two major parameters, peptisation temperature and drying temperature, were identified which were responsible for retarding the anatase to rutile phase transformation, crystal growth and packing of primary particles. The critical nucleus size of transformation was controlled by natural (at 25 °C) and artificial (at 50 and 70 °C) peptisation techniques. Moreover, sintering of primary particles was controlled by cool (at 0 and 5 °C) and normal (at 25 °C) drying techniques. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis confirmed that a full conversion of titanium isopropoxide is obtained... 

The stability of single-walled carbon nanopeapods under hydrostatic pressure is investigated using a continuum-based elastic shell model. The model incorporates nonbonded van der Waals interactions between the nested fullerenes and the host carbon nanotube. By deriving an explicit equation, it is shown that the critical hydrostatic pressure for the onset of structural instability of a completely packed C60@(10,10) nanopeapod is ∼1.11 GPa, while for the case of the pristine host (10,10) nanotube it is ∼1.84 GPa. Thus, it is concluded that the fullerene encapsulation weakens the host nanotube under hydrostatic pressure. In addition, it is quantitatively shown that any decrease in packing... 

Polymer-layered silicate nanocomposites have been noticed recently due to their outstanding properties. The mechanical properties and deformation mechanism of epoxy/montmorillonite nanocomposites under compressive and flexural loadings were investigated. A reduction in compressive and flexural yield stress and also glass transition temperature with increasing the amount of organoclay was observed. This change in mechanical behavior of epoxy can be explained with observation of plastic deformation mechanism. The study of deformation mechanism revealed that presence of organoclay accelerates shear yielding in epoxy. Microscopic evaluation illustrated that nanoparticles in this system act as... 

Commercially available track-etched polyester membranes were used as templates to electrodeposit Co-Ni-Cu/Cu multilayered nanowires, giving room-temperature current perpendicular to plane (CPP) giant magnetoresistance (GMR) values of up to ∼12%. In contrast to similar nanowires electrodeposited in track-etched polycarbonate membranes, the GMR obtained in multilayered nanowires electrodeposited in the polyester membranes increased with decreasing Cu-layer thickness tCu, for tCu in the 2-7 nm range, indicating a lack of ferromagnetic coupling through pinholes, etc. Transmission electron micrographs showed clear evidence for smooth, parallel layer interfaces in the nanowires. © 2006 Elsevier... 

CdS nanoparticles were grown using CdSO4 and Na 2S2O3 as the precursors and thioglycerol (TG) as the capping agent. TG was shown to exhibit a catalytic role in the reaction and also acted as a capping agent. It was demonstrated that size growth is linearly related to the temperature of the reaction, i.e.the sizes can be controllably adjusted by temperature. The crystalline phase of the nanocrystals was also dependent on the temperature of growth: higher temperature favours the cubic phase. The pH also plays an important role in nanoparticle growth, as lower pH leads to a higher release rate of sulfur species. At pH as high as 10, the growth rate remains slow even at boiling temperature. This... 

In this paper, the bending modulus of a multi-layered graphene sheet is investigated using a geometrically based analytical approach. For this purpose, a bending potential energy is derived, based on the van der Waals interactions of atoms belonging to the two neighboring sheets of a double-layered graphene sheet. The inter-atomic spacing between the adjacent layers is determined along the line of action of the applied bending moments. The bending potential of the double-layered sheet is calculated by summing up the potentials at discrete hexagons over the length and width of the sheet. A multi-layered graphene sheet is considered as consisting of many stacking double-layers. It is observed... 

TiO2 nanofibres were prepared using a templating method with tetraisopropylorthotitanate (TiPT) as a precursor. The preparation comprises liquid phase deposition on cellulose fibres followed by thermal removal of the cellulose template. The obtained TiO2 fibrous substance consists of micron-size fibres with a microstructure of nanofibres. It was demonstrated that nanofibres are basically formed through the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles and nanorods into chain structures during the thermal treatment process. The measured surface area of the TiO2 fibres was about 250 m2 g-1. It was shown that the pore size distribution is multi-scale and a fractal morphology was demonstrated with two... 

Growth mechanism of a single wall carbon nanotube on the surface of a nickel nanoparticle in the CVD method has been investigated by classical molecular dynamics method. Using first principles methods, we have first constructed a classical potential to describe the interaction between a carbon atom and the nickel surface. The important ingredient in this potential is its coordination number dependence, which also provides the key to the growth mechanism of the nanotube. From the simulations, it is proposed that the growth of an armchair nanotube takes place via attachment of dimers to its end which is in contact with the nickel surface. The effect of nickel nanoparticle's radius on the... 

Eu3+- and Ce3+-doped yttrium silicate, as well as Eu2+-doped zinc silicate nanoparticles, were grown in a porous SiO2 matrix using an impregnation method. For Y2Si 2O7:Eu3+, particles of about 50 nm size were obtained that exhibited several photoluminescence (PL) peaks in red. Different peaks showed slightly different decay times; however, their excitation mechanism was found the same. Increasing the Eu concentration increased the PL intensity while reducing the decay time. Y2Si2O7:Ce 3+ nanoparticles in the porous matrix showed bright blue emission, consisting of two peaks at 358 nm and 378 nm. Re-impregnation process was found effective in changing the relative intensity of the two peaks....