Sharif Digital Repository

In this research we focus on study and fabrication of titanium dioxide nanofibers and their application in preparation of dye sensitized solar cell’s photo anode in order to improve optical and electrical properties. Titanium dioxide nanofibers was prepared by electroespinning method. To investigate the effect of nanofiber diameter on optical and electrical properties of photo anode, three different diameter of titanium dioxide nanofibers with diameters of 100-200 nm, 200-300 nm and 500-600 nm was prepared by varying the type or amount of polymer in the electrospinning solution and fixing other conditions of electrospinning process. By use of these structures, paste of pure fibers in form of... 

In this research, the synthesis of the electrospum nano fiber doped zinc oxide and its photocatalyst usage was investigated. The band gap of the zinc oxide in the area of UV leads to deactivation of this material at the visible light. With due the attention to sunny weather in Iran and the fact that about 50 percentage of sunlight is visible light, producing and usage of catalyst materials actived at visible light is economical. Doping is one of the ways of activating ZnO at visible light, so in this research thiourea is used as the source of ZnO doping. The results of the expriments done at visible light and also spectrums of DRS, XPS and XRD prove that the doping is happened. Also, in this... 

Due to the negative effects of conventional plastics on the environment, especially in the packaging sector, extensive efforts have been put to replace these polymers with biodegradable polymers. Starch is one of the biodegradable polymers which has attracted a lot of attentions because of low cost and good process ability. Native starch has the form of granule and can be processed to a continuous phase after gelatinization in the presence of a plasticizer. The resulting material is a biodegradable plastic-like material called thermoplastic starch (TPS) which is processed using conventional technologies, but suffers from low mechanical properties and high hydrophilicity. Addition of... 

The aim of the current project is preparation, characterization and microfiltration evaluation of nanofiberous membrane. In order to prepare membranes, the electrospinning method was utilized and polyacrylonitrile and N-N, dimethylformamide (DMF) were used as the polymer and the solvent, respectively. As the nanofiber diameter controls the structure of the membrane and also bead formation reduces the membrane uniformity, at first the effects of four most influential electrospinning parameters, such as solution concentration, applied voltage, floe rate, and the distance between needle tip and the collector, on average fiber diameter and bead area density were investigated via response surface... 

Porosity and high surface area is a profound concept for creating advance materials. Nanofibers are an important class of nano materials which would be used as novel sorbents because of their high surface to volume ratio as a result of long lengths and nano-to-micro-scale diameters. Electrospining is a simple method for producing fine nanofibers from different meterials such as, polymers, composites and ceramics to prepare highly efficient sorbents. Moreover, electrospining has been developed for fabricating nanofibers with core-shell structures. These structures in compared with conventional fibers have gained higher attentions due to their high aspect ratios and flexiblity in surface... 

In this thesis we present fabrication, characterization, and experimental results describing electrical actuation and readout of the mechanical vibratory response of PVP, graphene-doped and ZnO fibers by employing electrical actuation. For a fiber resonator with an approximate radius of 850 nm and length of 100 µm, we observed a resonance frequency around 580 kHz with a quality factor (Q) of about 2511 in air at ambient conditions. Through the use of finite element simulations, we show that the reported frequency of resonance is relevant. Also, the measurements were performed in an enclosed chamber with controlled levels of ethanol vapor. The adsorption of ethanol causes a shift in the... 

Porosity and high surface area is a profound concept for creating advance materials. Nanofibers are an important class of nanomaterials with high surface to volume ratio as a result of long lengths and nano-to-micro-scale diameters. Electrospinning is a simple method for producing nanofibers from different polymers and composites and prepare highly efficient sorbents. Polymeric nanocomposites are claimed to exhibit markedly improved mechanical, magnetic, thermal and electrical properties. Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles have gained great attentions due to their low toxicity, stability and biocompatibility and have been extensively used to induce magnetic property to the desired sorbents.... 

Since previous models can not give a complete description for electrospinning electrical instability, using polymer solutions with diifferent properties, the aim of the existing thesis is to propose a new model that covers a range of materials from non-conducting to conducting and from viscous to elastic and also the initial jet’s tension. In addition, since the previous models have used large wave length approxiamtions, using accurate calculations we showed that the new model has better results for small wavelengths of about two times the jet’s radii. To compare the model to experimental results, we designed and made a proper setup to record the electrospinning process for a PEO solution... 

Tissue regeneration by bio-compatible/degradable scaffolds is one of the widely used approaches in the field of tissue engineering. In this study, a thermoplastic starch based nanocomposite scaffold with gradient structure was fabricated by unidirectional freeze drying method. To increase the stability of the scaffold in the aqueous media, PVA was added to starch solution. Then, the PVA and starch molecules were cross-linked by adding citric acid to the mixture. On the one hand, to improve the mechanical properties of the scaffold, and control its bio-degradability on the other, cellulose nano-fibers were employed. Also, the bioactivity of the scaffold was induced by using hydroxyapatite... 

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for a majority of health problem in developing countries. Heart diseases are the leading cause of death in the United State with approximately 40% of the death occurs by heart failures and coronary artery defects. Myocardial infarction is one of the diseases that occurs by coronay artery blockage. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) is an emerging field that holds great promise towards the development of innovative treatment strategies for heart disease. There are two common scaffolds for CTE, electrospun fiber mats and hydrogels. Although fibers are known as 3D environment for cells, they actually act as a 2D surface, because of lack of cell infilteration.... 

Wound is a defect or failure in the skin texture which occurs as a result of physical or heat injuries or physiological conditions. The wound dress as a temporary cover can improve wound healing process and due to the unique properties, hydrogels have become appropriate choice for this application. Hydrogel’s structure allows drug to be loaded in the wound dress. Hydrogel wound dress should have adequate fluidity to cover wound’s bed and make full contact with the skin. Sufficient cohesion and strength is also necessary to allow the wound dress to remove from wound completely. Therefore, the study on the viscoelastic properties of hydrogel is important. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol... 

In this work, wool keratin/polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibrous scaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning method. Bacterial cellulose nanofibrils (BCNFs) were embedded in the electrospun keratin/PEO nanofibers. Incorporation of BCNFs into the nanofibers enhances their hydrophilicity, mechanical properties and cell viability, adhesion and proliferation. Water contact angle of the nanofibers decreased from 126˚ to 83˚by addition of 1 wt % BCNFs. A thermogelling hydrogel based on carboxylated pluronic (Pl-COOH) and gum tragacanth (GT) was fabricated and polymer conjugation was confirmed by FTIR and H-NMR spectroscopy. Morphological and viscoelastic properties of GT-grafted Pl-COOH hydrogels... 

Electrospinning is a simple and versatile technique for producing polymeric and ceramic nanofibers. The conventional procedure for fabrication of ceramic nanofibers is a combination of sol-gel techniques and electrospinning. The main challenge is the spin polymer nanofiber in fabricate of fibers with diameter from 1 to 100 nm, while their standard deviation are as low as possible. Uniform beads free polyamidenanofibers with lower diameter were fabricated.A 18% w/w of polyamide in formic acid was chosen and the effect of magnetic field, adding magnetic ionic liquid surfactant, auxiliary electrode on the main fiber were investigated. They termsfiber 1 to fiber 5. The mean diameters of 489,... 

Attentions to nano materials due to their vast applications in different branches of science and technology have been remarkably increased in recent years. Nanofibers are an important class of nano materials which could be used as novel sorbents because of their high surface to volume ratio as a result of long lengths and nano-to-micro-scale diameters. Electrospinning is a broadly used technology which utilizes high electrostatic forces for producing nanofibers. In this study a novel high temperature resistant solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was prepared besed on Polyetherimide (PEI) by this method. The porosity of the PEI fiber was investigated by scanning electron microscopy... 

In this study, a novel electrospun modified polyamide (PA) based nanofibers were synthesized and employed as fibers coating for rapid determination of chlorophenols. The major polymer solution contained PA along with polyethylene glycol (PEG), acting as a side low molecular weight polymer. After production of the PA−PEG fiber coating, PEG was subsequently removed and modified by water which was confirmed by Fourier transform infra-red spectrometry.The scanning electron microscopy images showed anaverage diameter of 640 and 148 nmforPA and PA−PEG coatings, respectively while the latter coating structure was homogeneous and porous.The extraction efficiency of unmodified and modified coatings... 

In Lithium ion batteries, the separator is membrane that placed between the cathode and the anode is one of critical components. Its primary function is to effectively transport ionic charge carriers between two electrodes as an efficient ionic conductor as well as to prevent the electric contact between them as a good electric insulator. The separator does not involve directly in any cell reactions, but its structure and properties play an important role in determining the battery performance. Commercially available polyolefin separators low cost, good electric resistance, high electrochemical stability, and effectively prevent thermal runaway caused by the electrical short-circuits or... 

The aim of conducting this research is to study, fabrication and photocatalytic application of electrospun ZnO-based composite nanofibers. One of the most important challenges is to apply photocatalyst under solar irradiation and improve its activity for pollutant degradation. ZnO is a wide band gap semiconductor, hence, it is not active under the visible light. In Iran, we have at least 300 sunny days in a year. Therefore, fabrication and application of photocatalytic material with activity under the sunlight which contains 47% of visible light is so vital in our country. Since CuO is a visible light active photocatalyst and its interface with ZnO forms a type I heterojunction, this... 

Fabrication and characterization of different surface charged cellulose electrospun scaffolds including cellulose acetate, cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose and quaternary ammonium cationic cellulose for biomedical applications have been reported in this research. We describe preparation of cellulosic nanofibers through the electrospinning following deacetylation cellulose acetate. Moreover, surface modification of electrospun cellulose nanofibers is carried out to obtain carboxymethyl cellulose and quaternized cellulose nanofibers, respectively. At last, the structural, morphological, mechanical, swelling, wettability and the cell culture properties of the scaffolds were analyzed and... 

In this research we focus on fabrication and characterization of Dye and Cadmium based Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells (QDSCs) based on TiO2 nanostructures. TiO2 nanorods were synthesized with a simple chemical method. TiO2 nanorods, TiO2 nanorod/TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticle composite structures were integrated as photoanode in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Incorporation of TiO2 nanoparticles into the bare nanorods increased the efficiency more than 45%. Monitoring electron transport properties of the cells, pointed out the crucial role of electronic structure of composite film components on the performance of cells. Suitable morphology of TiO2 nanorods, led us to use them, to make a... 

In this project, a novel system of bioactive electrospun scaffold for bladder tissue engineering , has been investigated to control in vitro cell differentiation, and utilize in in vivo vascularization and tissue formation. This method doesn’t have custom bioactive scaffolds problems such as, protein instability, technical complexity and, difficulties in accurate kinetics prediction. First of all, protein loaded chitosan nanoparticles based on ionic gelation interaction between chitosan and Sodium tripolyphosphate were prepared. Maximum protein loading efficiency (80% for BSA & 99% for TGF-beta1) in chitosan nanoparticles was obtained at mean diameter of 51nm. Moreover polycaprolactone...