Sharif Digital Repository

Asphaltene deposition during oil production and transportation causes extensive damage to reservoirs and wellhead equipment. In this study, the effects of native and non-native resins as well as those of their mixtures on the asphaltene deposition process are investigated. A novel pressure, volume, and temperature (PVT) visual cell is used to check the effect of resin on asphaltene deposition at different pressures and reservoir temperatures. Two Iranian crude oil samples with different potentials of asphaltene deposition (low and high) were used in these tests. During depressurizing in the presence of native and non-native resins, the amount of asphaltene deposited was measured. To monitor... 

The process of imaging a biomolecule by atomic force microscope (AFM) is modeled using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Since the large normal force exerted by the tip on the biosample in contact and tapping modes may damage the sample structure and produce irreversible deformation, the noncontact mode of AFM (NC-AFM) is employed as the operating mode. The biosample is scanned using a carbon nanotube (CNT) as the AFM probe. CNTs because of their small diameter, high aspect ratio and high mechanical resistance attract many attentions for imaging purposes. The tip-sample interaction is simulated by the MD method. The protein, which has been considered as the biomolecule, is ubiquitin and a... 

In this research, titanium dioxide (TiO2) ultra-thin films have been successfully obtained on lamina-glass substrates by thermal oxidation of DC magnetron sputtered titanium. The as-deposited and the annealed films have been characterized by different techniques. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed the amorphous structure of as-deposited titanium and anatase crystal structure for the annealed films. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) results showed that increasing the annealing temperature could lead to rougher and larger grain size in the films. Finally, the optical data and band-gap calculations of the films were obtained using the transmittance spectrum, indicating that... 

In this paper, the resonant frequency and sensitivity of atomic force microscope (AFM) microcantilevers are studied using the modified couple stress theory. The classical continuum mechanics is incapable of interpreting micro-structure-dependent size effects when the size of structures is in micron- and sub-micron scales. However, this dependency can be well treated by using non-classical continuum theories. The modified couple stress theory is a non-classic continuum theory which employs additional material parameters besides those appearing in classical continuum theory to treat the size-dependent behavior. In this work, writing differential equations of motion of AFM cantilevers together... 

The resonant frequencies and torsional sensitivities of an atomic force microscope (AFM) assembled cantilever probe which comprises a horizontal cantilever, two vertical extensions and two tips located at their free ends are studied. This probe makes the AFM capable of measuring, for instance, the outer/inner diameter, roundness and roughness of microstructures like micro-holes and micro nozzles which leads to a time-saving swift scanning process. In this work, the effects of the sample surface contact stiffness and the geometrical parameters such as the ratio of the vertical extension length to the horizontal cantilever length and the distance of the first vertical extension from the... 

The resonant frequencies and torsional sensitivities of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with assembled cantilever probe (ACP) are studied. This ACP comprises a horizontal cantilever, a vertical extension and two tips located at the free ends of the cantilever and the extension which makes the AFM capable of simultaneous topography at top-surface and sidewalls of microstructures especially microgears which consequently leads to a time-saving swift scanning process. In this work, the effects of the sample surface contact stiffness and the geometrical parameters such as the ratio of the vertical extension length to the horizontal cantilever length and the distance of the vertical extension... 

The resonant frequencies and flexural sensitivities of an atomic force microscope (AFM) assembled cantilever probe which comprises a horizontal cantilever, a vertical extension and two tips located at the free ends of the cantilever and the extension are studied. This probe makes the AFM capable of simultaneous topography at top-surface and sidewalls of microstructures especially microgears which leads to a time-saving swift scanning process. In this work, the effects of the sample surface contact stiffness and the geometrical parameters such as the ratio of the vertical extension length to the horizontal cantilever length and the distance of the vertical extension from clamped end of the... 

In this study, using analytical method, the torsional resonant frequency and torsional sensitivity of the first four modes of an AFM cantilever with sidewall probe including a horizontal cantilever and a vertical extension is analyzed and a closed form for torsional sensitivity of the probe is derived. In addition, the effect of relative parameters such as ratio of vertical extension length to horizontal cantilever length is investigated. According to this study, the results show that as contact stiffness increases, the resonant frequencies of all vibration modes increases until they reach constant values at very high values of contact stiffness. It is also can be found that low-order modes... 

Improvement of microcantilever-based sensors and actuators chiefly depends on how comprehensively they are modeled and precisely formulated. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is the most widespread application of microcantilever beam as a sensor, which is usually influenced by the tip-sample interaction force. For this, vibration of AFM microcantilever probe is analyzed in this paper, along with analytical, numerical and experimental investigation of the influence of the sample interaction force on the microcantilever vibration. Nonlinear integro-partial equation of microcantilever vibration subject to the tip-sample interaction is then derived and numerically simulated. Moreover, multiple time... 

Nickel nanostructure thin films were electrodeposited on copper plates to investigate the fractal study. Scharifker's equations were derived for instantaneous and progressive nucleation and 3D growth of hemispherical centres under diffusion-controlled condition to calculate in situ change of fractal dimension of surface. It was assumed that the layer could be formed completely when fractal dimension of surface inclined to 2. Moreover, the fractal analysis of atomic force microscopy (AFM) images has confirmed the presumed model. Also, the power values of power spectral density (PSD) of the AFM images were determined using fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms. The PSD plots are approximated... 

Nano-manipulation is one of the most important aspects of nano-robotics and nano-assembly. The positioning process is considered by many researches to be one of the most important parts of nano-assembly, but has been poorly investigated, particularly for biologic samples. This Letter is devoted to modelling the process of positioning a biomolecule with atomic force microscopy (AFM) in an aqueous media using molecular dynamics simulations. Carbon nanotube (CNT) and graphite sheet are selected as AFM tip and substrate, respectively. To consider the effects of the medium on the manipulation, several models for decreasing the calculations including implicit, coarse grained, and all-atom methods... 

In this study, using analytical method, the torsional resonant frequency and torsional sensitivity of the first four modes of an AFM cantilever with sidewall probe including a horizontal cantilever and a vertical extension is analyzed and a closed form for torsional sensitivity of the probe is derived. In addition, the effect of relative parameters such as ratio of vertical extension length to horizontal cantilever length is investigated. According to this study, the results show that as contact stiffness increases, the resonant frequencies of all vibration modes increases until they reach constant values at very high values of contact stiffness. It is also can be found that low-order modes... 

Polymeric materials generally suffer from a low resistance to various types of surface mechanical damage, among which scratch is a prominent example. While several attempts have been made to assess the scratch resistance and its relationship with the bulk mechanical properties in simple polymeric systems, the available research on the polymeric blends is scarce. This study attempts to fill this gap by studying the link between the scratch resistance and mechanical properties in a ternary polymeric nanocomposite, which has proved to feature superior and tunable mechanical properties. For this aim, blends of polypropylene and polyamide 6 were prepared using melt blending with two different... 

Influence of backside coating parameters on dynamic response of AM-AFM is modeled. Timoshenko based beam model is used and the general nonlinear interaction force is enclosed. The coupled ODEs of motion are achieved. The mode shapes are determined for coated cantilever and the natural frequency of each mode is validated with experimental results. It is showed a shorter cantilever with tip mass have better accuracy and inelastic and massless assumptions are not proper choice for modelling of the coating. The assumed mode method is used to determine time response of system for faraway and scanning condition of AM-AFM. Amplitude of response is calculated by FFT of time domain. Sensitivity... 

Trolling mode atomic force microscopy (TR-AFM) has resolved many imaging problems by a considerable reduction of the liquid-resonator interaction forces in liquid environments. The present study develops a nonlinear model of the meniscus force exerted to the nanoneedle of TR-AFM and presents an analytical solution to the distributed-parameter model of TR-AFM resonator utilizing multiple time scales (MTS) method. Based on the developed analytical solution, the frequency-response curves of the resonator operation in air and liquid (for different penetration length of the nanoneedle) are obtained. The closed-form analytical solution and the frequency-response curves are validated by the... 

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement... 

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement... 

A novel technique based on image processing inspired by the simple assumption for the first time to assess the roughness of nanofibrous mats based on grayscale variations is proposed. The height of a nanofibrous mat in different regions of the surface is simulated by grayscale variations in the image while the relation between grayscale and height is obtained as a linear function. The roughness is obtained by measuring height variations in the surface profile. Statistical roughness parameters of nanofibrous mats are also obtained from direct measurement with roughness profilometry and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for comparison of the roughness of nanofibrous mats between direct measurement... 

Trolling mode atomic force microscopy (TR-AFM) can considerably reduce the liquid-resonator interaction forces, and hence, has overcome many imaging problems in liquid environments. This mode increases the quality factor (QF) significantly compared with the conventional AFM operation in liquid; therefore, the duration to reach the steady-state periodic motion of the oscillating probe is relatively high. As a result, utilizing conventional imaging techniques, which are based on measuring the amplitude and phase, are significantly slower when compared to our proposed method. This research presents a high-speed scanning technique based on an estimation law to obtain the topography of various... 

Polymeric like carbon (PLC) films are grown by a capacitance coupled RF-PECVD on the grounded electrode at room temperature from liquid gas (40% propane and 60% butane) in two regimes with nitrogen and without nitrogen gas. Films are characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption and Raman spectroscopy. The result of FTIR analyses indicates that more than 90% of hydrogen atoms are bonded to carbon with sp 3 hybridization. The abundance of CH 3 is more than that of CH 2 and this one is more than that of CH for carbon with sp 3 hybridization in these films. The C 1s line of the XPS spectra is deconvoluted to...