Sharif Digital Repository

Zeolite-based photocatalysts were prepared by the sol-gel and deposition methods. The photocatalysts were characterised by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry. The activity of the prepared photocatalysts was evaluated by the UV-induced degradation of acid blue 92, a textile dye in common use. The effect of various parameters, such as catalyst concentration, initial dye concentration, thiosulphate concentration and pH, on the rate and efficiency of the photocatalytic degradation of acid blue 92 was investigated. The results showed that each parameter influenced the degradation... 

Zeolite-based Ag/AgBr and Ag/AgBr/TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared by sol–gel and deposition methods and were characterized. Their photocatalytic activities were evaluated by inactivation of Escherichia (E.) coli and the photodegradation of Acid Blue 92 and potassium permanganate. The composites containing Ag/AgBr showed the antibacterial activity in the dark by releasing Ag+ ions into the medium. The results for inactivation of E. coli indicated that Ag/AgBr/TiO2 modified photocatalyst had better antibacterial activity than Ag/AgBr/zeolite, while zeolite and TiO2/zeolite did not show any antibacterial activity under visible light and dark conditions. Photodecolarization rate was affected... 

TiO2 and transition metal (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol–gel method using 2-hydroxylethylammonium formate as an ionic liquid. All the prepared samples were calcined at 500 °C and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area determination, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) techniques. The studies revealed that transition metal (TM) doped nanoparticles have smaller crystalline size and higher surface area than pure TiO2. Dopant ions in the TiO2 structure caused significant absorption shift into the visible region. The results of... 

TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by the sol - gel process using 2-hydroxylethy- lammonium formate as an ionic liquid. Nanoparticles were crystallized at various temperatures (300-700°C). The products were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption - desorption isotherms and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. It was found that the resulting TiO2 nanoparticles had good thermal stability either to resist collapse or the anatase-to-rutile phase transformation during heat treatment. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocrystalline TiO2 was evaluated by the degradation of Acid Blue 92 (AB92) which is\ commonly used as a textile dye. The results showed that the... 

The conductive CuCo2O4 spinel coating is applied on the surface of the AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel by the dip-coating sol-gel process and it is evaluated in terms of the microstructure, oxidation resistance and electrical conductivity. The results show that the CuCO2O 4 coating forms a double-layer scale consisting of a Cr, Fe-rich subscale and Cu-Co spinel top layer after 500 h in air at 800 °C. This scale is protective, acts as an effective barrier against Cr migration into the outer oxide layer and alleviates the cathode Cr-poisoning. The oxidation resistance is significantly enhanced by the protective coating with a parabolic rate constant of 5.8 × 10-13 gr2 cm-4 s -1, meanwhile... 

To enhance hydrophilicity and photocatalytic activity, N-doped and N–V-codoped TiO2films were coated on glass substrates by the sol–gel dip-coating method. The substrates were previously coated with SiO2using the same method. The coated samples, after annealing at 450 °C for 30 min in air, were analyzed by an X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscope, and UV–visible spectroscope. The SiO2/N–V-codoped TiO2photocatalyst showed a narrower band gap (2.93 eV) compared to the SiO2/N-doped. Degradation tests, methyl orange under UV light and stearic acid under visible light, were performed in order to evaluate... 

Sol-gel based solid-phase microextraction fibers supported by a stainless steel wire were fabricated and employed for GC-MS determination of oxadiargyl in real samples. The fibers were based on four compounds with different polarity: polar and non-polar (end-capped) poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and poly(ethylene-propyleneglycol)-monobutyl ether (UCON). For this purpose, the surface of the stainless steel was initially modified by (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane. The results of the modification procedure were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. After the modification, four different sol-gel based SPME fibers with... 

TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal assisted sol-gel technique. The preparation parameters including pH value, the amount of water, titanium tetra isopropoxide content, temperature and time of hydrothermal process were investigated by Taguchi statistical experiments to determine the influence of synthesizing variables on the optimal conditions and to realize the highest degree of crystallinity or smallest crystallite size. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and direct band gap energy (Eg) values, measured via diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), proved that all the samples consist of anatase as a unique phase. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and specific surface area... 

A novel solid-phase microextraction(SPME) fiber was prepared using sol-gel technology with ethoxylated nonylphenol as a fiber coating material. The fiber was employed to develop a headspace SPME-GC-MS method suitable for quantification of 13 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water samples. Surface characteristics of the fibers were inspected by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy as well as by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM measurements showed the presence of highly porous nano-sized particles in the coating. Important parameters affecting the extraction efficiency such as extraction temperature and time, desorption conditions as well as ionic strength have been... 

Carbon nanotubes with unique physical and mechanical properties have shown great potential for biological applications, including tissue engineering and mimicking the structure and properties of human bones. In the present work, sol-gel synthesized nanocomposite powder of multi-wall carbon nanotube/hydroxyapatite characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and thermal analyses. The results show homogenous dispersion of nanotube in well-crystallized hydroxyapatite ceramic matrix. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscope observations show the sodium... 

Titanium anodes coated with noble metal oxides are widely used in chlorate industry. In fact, these anodes are dimensionally stable. In this article, the electrochemical characteristics of the ternary oxide coating created by sol-gel on titanium, which consisted of Ti, Ru and Ir, were investigated in the number of different layers. The electrochemical properties of anodes, morphology of samples, and phase analysis were investigated respectively by cyclic voltammetry and polarization measurements, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and XRD. The result indicated that the application of the more layer number increases the rate of chlorine evolution. Also, The morphology of the... 

Titanium(IV) tetraisopropoxide was employed as a metal oxide sol-gel precursor to prepare ceramic composite nanofibers by the electrospinning system. To facilitate this process and obtain the desired nanofibers with higher aspect ratios and surface area, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) was added to the sol of titania. Four ceramic nanofibers sheets based on titania were prepared while each sheet contained different transition metals such as Fe-Mn, Fe-Ni, Fe-Co, and Fe-Mn-Co-Ni. The scanning electron microscope images showed good homogeneity for all the prepared ceramic composites with a diameter range of 100-250 nm. The sorption efficiency was investigated by a micro-solid-phase extraction setup in... 

CdS/TiO2/graphene (CTG) nanocomposite thin films were synthesized by a facile production route. The TiO2/graphene (TG) nanocomposite was initially fabricated by sol-gel method in such a way that TiO2 nanoparticles loaded on graphene oxide (GO) sheet via photocatalytic process. Then, CdS nanoparticles were deposited on the TG thin film by successive ion layer adsorption and reaction process (SILAR) approach. Based on atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses, the TG thin film possessed a larger surface area as compared with the pure TiO2 thin film due to presence of graphene sheet. UV/visible spectroscopy exhibited... 

Despite brilliant properties of glass ionomer cement (GIC), its weak mechanical property poses an obstacle for its use in medical applications. The present research aims to formulate hydroxyapatite/yttria-stabilized zirconia (HA/YSZ) in the composition of GIC to enhance mechanical properties and to improve fluoride release of GIC. HA/YSZ was synthesized via a sol-gel method and characterized by applying X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photo-emission spectroscopy (XPS) and simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) along with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods. The synthesized nanocomposite was mixed with GIC at a fixed composition of 5.... 

In this research, an attempt was made to improve TiO2 photo-catalyst properties, thus pure, N-Ce co-doped TiO2 thin films were prepared on glass-ceramic substrate using a sol-gel dip-coating technique. The samples were calcinated in air at 475 °C, 550°C, and 650°C for 2 h. The result of simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the presence of Ce in TiO2 could inhibit the phase transformation from anatase to rutile and enhance the thermal stability, and anatase was the dominant phase in N-Ce co-doped TiO2 samples. Also based on the results, the doping results in decreasing the size of TiO 2 crystallite. The results of ultra violet-visible light diffuse... 

Ruthenium oxide was coated on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to obtain nanocomposite electrode which has a good response to the pH. To synthesize this electrode, gold and cobalt were coated on a stainless steel 304 substrates, respectively, and then, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes were grown on the prepared substrates by chemical vapor deposition. Gold reduced activity of the stainless steel, while cobalt served as a catalyst for growth of the carbon nanotube. Ruthenium oxide was then coated on MWCNTs via sol-gel method. At last, different techniques were used to characterize the properties of synthesized electrode including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission... 

Silver-doped indium tin oxide thin films were synthesized using sol-gel dip-coating technique. The influence of different silver-dopant contents and annealing temperature on the electrical, optical, structural, and morphological properties of the films were characterized by means of four-point probe, UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS). XRD analysis confirmed the formation of cubic bixbyte structure of In2O3with silver nanoparticles annealed at 350 °C. XPS analysis showed that divalent tin transformed to tetravalent tin through oxidization, and silver nanoparticles embedded into ITO... 

In this report, crack-free nanostructured barium titanate thin films are prepared by a sol-gel processing method. Glacial acetic acid, barium acetate, titanium tetraisopropyl alkoxide, 2-propanol and deionized water are used as precursors for preparing stable precursor solution. Then very thin films (thickness=26 nm) are deposited on fused silica substrates. In order to prepare crack-free thin films of BaTiO3, much attention is given to solvent evaporation process and a controlled pre-drying process is developed. It is found that the control of the process, especially in the initial stage of drying process is crucial and important for preparation of the crack-free ultrathin nanostructured... 

Nanocrystalline and nanostructured TiO2-Cr2O3 thin films and powders were prepared by a facile and straightforward aqueous particulate sol-gel route at low temperature of 400°C. The prepared sols showed a narrow particle size distribution with hydrodynamic diameter in the range of 17.7 nm to 19.0 nm. Moreover, the sols were stable over 4 months, with constant zeta potential measured during this period. The effect of the Cr:Ti molar ratio on the crystallization behavior of the products was studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the powders crystallized at low temperature of 400°C, containing anatase-TiO2, rutile-TiO2, and Cr2O3 phases, depending on the annealing temperature... 

Nanostructured TiO2-Al2O3 films and powders were prepared by a straightforward aqueous particulate sol-gel route. Titanium (IV) isopropoxide and aluminum chloride were used as precursors, and hydroxypropyl cellulose was used as a polymeric fugitive agent in order to increase the porosity. The effect of Al:Ti molar ratio was studied on the crystallization behavior of the products. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the powders crystallized at 800°C, containing anatase-TiO2, rutile-TiO2 and cubic-Al2O3 phases. Furthermore, it was found that Al2O3 retarded the anatase to rutile transformation. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) image showed that one of the smallest crystallite sizes was...