Sharif Digital Repository

The high charge carrier recombination rate and weak oxygen evolution kinetics have impeded the efficiency of WO3 photoelectrodes for water splitting. We present a novel type II heterojunction semiconductor based on mixed WS2 and MoS2 nanosheets on WO3 nanoflakes hydrothermally grown on highly porous W skeletons. The chemically exfoliated transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) sheets with submicrometric lateral sizes were deposited on the surface of WO3 nanoflakes by the electrophoretic technique to fabricate a staggered gap heterojunction. The photoanode exhibited an impressive current density of 14.9 mA cm−2 at 1.23 VRHE which comprised ∼1.7 mA cm−2 photocurrent under 100 mW cm−2 simulated... 

Cu@Cu 2 O core-shell nanoparticles on the a-C:H thin films are prepared by co-deposition of RF-Sputtering and RF-PECVD. The samples with different Cu concentration and Cu nanoparticle with different size are grown. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterization indicates that the surface of the Cu nanoparticles oxidizes when they are exposed to air. The results are indicative that the shell of nanoparticle is mainly Cu 2 O phase with CuO cover thin layer. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak that is signature of the existence of the Cu core nanoparticles appears in visible spectra of these films. Several interesting information are obtained from XPS study of these core-shells... 

Nickel - copper alloy modified glassy carbon electrodes (GC/NiCu) prepared by galvanostatic deposition were used for the electrocatalytic oxidation of glucose in alkaline solutions. The electro-oxidation of glucose in a 1 M NaOH solution at different concentration of glucose was studied by the method of ac-impedance spectroscopy. The impedance behavior show different patterns, capacitive, and inductive loops and negative resistances, at different applied anodic potential. The influence of the electrode potential on the impedance pattern is studied and a quantitative explanation for the impedance behavior of glucose oxidation is put forward by a proposed mathematical model. At potentials... 

Nowadays "as everywhere in the world", so much attention is drawn to performing safety and HSE management rules in Iran. Considering the long life of oil and it's relevant industries in Iran (since 1908, first oil well in Middle East, Masjid Soleyman), many units with more than 50 years old are still in operation. This situation posed special problems in performing safety and HSE regulations that some of them are communal among these units. This paper reveals the result of industrial projects, collecting numerous technical checklists in such units and author's experiences in recent years in Iran, which is aimed to announce some of these major problems and also present solutions for them.... 

In this work we present an ellipsoid cavity regime for the production of a bunch of quasi-monoenergetic electrons. The electron output beam is more effective than the periodic plasma wave method or the plasma-channel-guided method. A hyperbola, parabola or ellipsoid path is described for the electron trajectory motion in this model. A dense bunch of relativistic electrons with a quasi-monoenergetic spectrum is self-generated here. The obtained results show a smaller width for the electron energy spectrum in comparison with the previous results. We found that there are optimum conditions to form the ellipsoid cavity. Laser beam properties (such as the spot size, power and pulse duration) and... 

This paper presents the study of the structural and optical properties of copper doped cadmium sulfide thin films prepared by pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The copper concentration in the targets was varied from 0.05% to 5% in weight and they were heated at a temperature of 500°C in air for one hour. It was observed that annealing un-doped and doped thin films at temperatures above 160°C leads to an abrupt increase in the optical transmission, changing from dark brownish to transparent yellowish. For annealed samples at 300°C, increasing Cu concentration from 0.0% to 2%, leads to an increase in the optical transmission up to 80%, at a wavelength of about 700 nm. XRD patterns showed the hexagonal... 

Two-stage chemical deposition (TSCD) technique is used to produce ZnO, Mn2O3 and NiO films on soda-lime glass (SL-G) from an aqueous solution of zinc, manganese and nickel complex, respectively. The TSCD method enables the deposition of metal oxide thin films with a thickness which can be controlled during the preparation procedure. The ZnO, Mn 2O3 and NiO thin films were polycrystalline films which were adherent well to the substrates. The SEM micrographs clearly indicate that the zinc oxide layer is composed of oval shaped crystallites preferably orientated perpendicular to the surface of the substrate. The Mn 2O3 and NiO layers were closely packed on the substrate. These particles seem to... 

During transient tests, both pressure and temperature are changed depending on downhole flow rate. In gas producing wells, Joule-Thomson cooling and frictional heating effects are the main dynamic factors causing flowing bottomhole temperature to differ from the static formation temperature at that depth. When a gas well is shut in, JT cooling effect is vanished and this causes a sharp increase in sandface temperature. As effect of wellbore storage ends, wellbore temperature gradually cools down due to heat conduction with near wellbore region. This paper demonstrates a new technique for using temperature transient data in gas wells in order to determine end of wellbore storage. Also, effect... 

A film composed of carbon nanoparticles and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) or CNP-PDDAC is formed in a layer-by-layer deposition process at tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) substrates. Excess positive binding sites within this film in aqueous phosphate buffer at pH 9.5 are quantified by adsorption of iron(III)phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate and indigo carmine. Both anionic redox systems bind with Langmuirian characteristics (K ≈ 105 mol-1 dm3) and show electrochemical reactivity throughout the film at different thicknesses. Therefore, the electrical conductivity in CNP-PDDAC films is good and the positive binding sites are approximately 140 pmol cm-2 per layer. Structural instability of... 

Hematite (α-Fe2O3) is a promising candidate for water oxidation applications due to its abundance in the earth crust and its suitable bandgap. However, hematite performance is severely limited by electron-hole recombination at its interface with the electrolyte; something that can be addressed using electrocatalysts. In this report, we evaluate the influence of a ternary NiFeCo co-catalyst to enhance the water oxidation performance of hematite photoanodes. Thus, NiFeCo co-catalyst is optimized for hematite thin films with i) dense and ii) porous (nano-rod) morphologies. Both hematite films are prepared using electron beam evaporation method followed by an annealing step and NiFeCo... 

Here, cobalt oxide nanostructures synthesized on vertically aligned copper oxide nanowires (NWs) have been investigated as a possible anode material for Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Copper oxide NWs were formed by thermal oxidation of electrochemically deposited copper on the stainless steel mesh substrate. The process used allows the formation of highly dense copper oxide NWs with excellent adhesion to the conductive current collector substrate. A simple hydrothermal method was implemented for the deposition of cobalt oxide nanostructures on the copper oxide NWs. The as-prepared binder-free copper oxide@cobalt oxide NWs electrode exhibits a high initial specific capacity of 460 mAh g-1 at... 

A cost-effective, durable, and easy-to-produce improvement in bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting is crucial for future renewable energy systems. In this present study, shape-controlled one-dimensional (1D) phosphorized cobalt (CoP) on 3D porous nickel foam (NiF) was synthesized through successive treatment of commercial NiF with acetone and ethanol, followed by hydrothermal growth of Co and final process of phosphorization by thermochemical reactions. The evaluations of products proved reduced overpotential (270 mV at 10 mA. cm−2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) process and a low overpotential of 320 mV to reach a high current density of 20 mA. cm−2), low Tafel slope... 

In this work, synthesis of CuIn0.75Ga0.25S2 (CIGS) nanoparticles, the formation of stable dispersion, deposition of high-quality films and, fabrication of thin-film Perovskite solar cells are reported. The stability of nanoparticle ink is crucial in the formation of device-quality films. The chalcogenide-based materials are widely used in thin-film solar cells; in particular, Cu(In,Ga)S2 are used as an absorber and hole transporting layer. In the present study, the nanoparticles of about 20 nm size and bandgap of 1.5 eV are synthesized using a heat-up method. A variety of solvents are used as dispersing media and the stability of the inks is evaluated by precise optical monitoring. We... 

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... 

Evolution of renewable energies in the era of the modernized world has been strongly tied up to the incessant development of high-performance energy storage systems benefiting from both high energy and power densities. In the present work, binder-free positive electrodes are fabricated via a facile electrochemical deposition route in which copper oxide nanorods (CuO NRs) directly grown onto the copper foam (CF) are decorated with bimetallic cobalt-zinc sulfide nanoarrays (Co-Zn-S NAs). The fabricated Co-Zn-S@CuO-CFs represent promising specific capacity of 317.03 C.g−1 at 1.76 A.g−1, along with superior cyclic stability (113% retention after 4500 cycles). Negative electrodes were further... 

Active edge sites of MoS2 nanosheets exhibit promising futures for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), comparable with remarkable performances of highly cost platinum. However, 3D structures of MoS2 suffer from a lack of high mobility and unexposed active sites which lower the electrocatalytic activity. In this study, we show that there is a balance between increasing the active sites on the one hand and managing the charge transfer to facilitate the reaction on the other hand, and achieving this balance increases the efficiency of the electrocatalyst tremendously. For this purpose, we directly attached exfoliated MoS2 nanosheets onto carbon cloth (CC) substrate as a 3D network of conductive... 

In this study, ZrO2 coatings with different thicknesses were grown by the electron beam evaporation technique. The crystalline structure was studied by XRD analysis which suggested the tetragonal and monoclinic phases for ZrO2 coatings. Additionally, the film thickness slightly enhanced the crystallinity. The surface morphology and fractal features were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The surface statistical parameters and the fractal geometry were employed to analyze the impact of the coating thickness and homogeneity on the morphology of the films. The statistical processing and fractal dimension revealed variations in the morphology parameters due to the electron beam... 

WO3 films with thicknesses between 550 and 853 nm were deposited on glass substrates using the electron beam evaporation method at room temperature. The microstructures and surface roughness of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was observed that the crystalline structure of the WO3 thin films significantly changes from the amorphous to crystalline states with a crystalline texture, and the mosaicity and grain size dependent on the film thickness. The transmittance spectra of the obtained WO3 films were measured in the range from 340 to 850 nm, and the Swanepoel method was used to determine the refractive indices and the thicknesses of the... 

Although important advances have been acquired in the field of electrocatalysis, the design and fabrication of highly efficient and stable non-noble earth-abundant metal catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remain a significant challenge. In this study, we have designed a superior bifunctional catalyst for OER and HER in alkaline media based on the Co-Mo-P/Zn-Co-S multicomponent heterostructure. The as-prepared multicomponent heterostructure was successfully obtained via a simple three-step hydrothermal-sulfidation-electrodeposition process consisting of star-like Co-Zn-S covered with Co-Mo-P. The structure and morphology evaluation of the... 

Developing a uniform polymer-based composite filament is a critical factor for a successful 3D printing process. In this regard, a novel technique for the fabrication of PLA-graphite filament with the potential to be applied to other PLA-based composite filaments was proposed and compared to the solvent casting method. This modified mixing technique involves partial dissolution of the PLA pellets surface by dichloromethane (DCM), which creates a sticky surface for the strong adhesion of reinforcement powders. The manufactured composite filament by this method exhibited excellent structural features, while the solvent casting method yielded a heterogeneous filament with a non-uniform diameter...