Electropolymerization and characterization of 3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene on glassy carbon electrode and study of ions transport of the polymer during redox process

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOTh) films were deposited on glassy carbon (GC) electrodes from organic electrolytes containing the monomer in a solution of acetonitrile (AN). The effect of the supporting electrolyte used during electropolymerization, on the redox behavior, surface morphology, and degree of crystallinity of the films has been investigated by FTIR, cyclic voltammetry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The use of LiPF₆ leads to a higher electropolymerization efficiency and an increase of electroactivity and crystallinity of the polymer. On the basis of voltammetric studies of the Nernst and Butler–Volmer equations, we concluded that BF₄⁻, ClO₄⁻, and PF₆⁻ anions are the mobile species during the redox process of the PEDOTh films. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Modeling of the Off‐Gas Cooling System for an Electric Arc Furnace and Evaluation of the Heat Recovery Potential

The prerequisite for the optimization and control of many industrial processes is having a model. It should be accurate and fast to prepare an appropriate estimation of the process. The exhaust system plays a significant role in the electric arc furnace process and, therefore, its optimization is investigated in this work. An unsteady and nonlinear model of the fluctuating off‐gas flow through the exhaust system is presented based on the mass and energy conservation laws. The thermodynamic calculations are facilitated by modular based modeling and also the model is implemented equipmentwise to cover all possible arrangements in the dedusting system. A Sankey diagram of the whole system is illustrated to examine the heat recovery potential of the off‐gas cooling system.     

Isolation and Identification of Phenanthrene Degrading Bacteria from the Soil around Oil Company of Andimeshk and Investigation of Their Growth Kinetics

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are particularly important due to large distribution in the environment, high toxicity and their carcinogen and mutagen properties. The purpose of this study was isolation and identification of phenanthrene degrading bacteria from the soil around Oil Company of Andimeshk (Iran) and investigation of their growth kinetics. Sampling from three stations was done at two seasons, spring and summer. Phenanthrene degrading bacteria were isolated from soil using enrichment method. Bacterial identification was performed by biochemical tests and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined at various concentrations of phenanthrene. Bacterial biodegradation rate was determined using HPLC analysis. Finally, the growth kinetics of resistant bacteria was determined with culturing at concentrations of 0.5–0.8 g/l of phenanthrene. According to biochemical and molecular tests Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain SBL, Bacillus cereus strain Z4B-11, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Micrococcus luteus were identified as phenanthrene degrading bacteria. The results showed that P. aeruginosa SBL and B. cereus Z4B-11 with the greatest amount of MIC are the most phenanthrene resistant bacteria, respectively. These two strains degraded 70% and 50% of phenanthrene after one week of incubation, respectively. The most growth in different concentrations of phenanthrene belonged to P. aeruginosa SBL and B. cereus Z4B-11 while the least growth belonged to S. epidermidis and M. luteus, respectively. It could be concluded that two new strains SBL and Z4B-11 which were isolated in the soil around Oil Company of Andimeshk have relatively high potential to be used for bioremediation of phenanthrene.     

Development of a coupled wavelet transform and evolutionary Levenberg‐Marquardt neural networks for hydrological process modeling

This research aims to present a general framework by which the most appropriate wavelet parameters including mother wavelet, vanishing moment, and decomposition level can be chosen for a joint wavelet transform and machine learning model. This study is organized in 2 parts: the first part presents an evolutionary Levenberg‐Marquardt neural network (ELMNN) model as the most effective machine learning configuration, and the second part describes how the wavelet transform can be effectively embedded with the developed ELMNN model. In this research, the rainfall and runoff time series data of 2 distinct watersheds at 2 different time scales (daily and monthly) were used to build the proposed hybrid wavelet transform and ELMNN model. The conclusions of this study showed that the Daubechies wavelet more than other wavelet families is capable to extract the informative features of hydrologic series. The vanishing moment and decomposition level of this mother wavelet should be selected based on the watershed behavior and the time resolution of rainfall and runoff time series, respectively. The verification results for both watersheds at daily and monthly time scales indicated root mean square error, peak value criterion, low value criterion, and Kling‐Gupta efficiency as about 0.017, 0.021, 0.023, and 0.91, respectively.     

Micromorphology and Optical Bandgap Characterization of Copper Oxide Nanowires

Due to the industrial applications of nasno materials, the growth of Copper oxide (CuO) nanowires (NWs) at the same and opposite directions of the electric and gravitational fields was investigated to study the effects of fields on the NWs properties. The experiments were designed to grow NWs using thermal oxidation method at 450 ^°C for 50 h. NWs growth was evaluated to study two distinct cases; first, substrates exposed to the gravitational field and second those treated with electric field (EF) in-lined with gravitation field (GF). It was observed that the electric field developed a diameter homogeneity while compressing the NWs and decreasing the diameters. Furthermore, the GF influenced only the length of the NWs, while the EF had an impact on both length and diameter of the NWs. The direction of fields played an important role in NWs morphology and intensity of XRD pattern and optical properties. It was also observed that field direction greatly influenced the NWs length and diameter.     

Semi-automatic measurement of rigid gas-permeable contact lens movement in keratoconus patients using blinking images

Purpose

To introduce a method for estimation of the rigid gas-permeable contact lens (RGP) movement.

Bio-resourced furan resin as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based phenolic resin for making GFR polymer composites

Iranian Polymer Journal - Toward sustainability of polymer-matrix composites, this study aimed to prepare and evaluate glass fiber reinforced (GFR) biocomposites of fully bio-based furan resin, and...     

Synthesis and Characterization of Polycarbonate/TiO2 Ultrafiltration Membranes: Critical Flux Determination

A novel polycarbonate (PC) membrane was modified with titanium dioxide via nonsolvent-induced phase separation method to improve its hydrophilicity and antifouling properties in a submerged membrane system for the removal of humic acid (HA) both with and without polyaluminum chloride (PAC) coagulant. The effect of TiO₂ additive on the morphology and performance of the nanocomposite membranes was studied by atomic force microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, mechanical properties, water contact angle, porosity, pure water flux, rejection tests, and antifouling parameters. The obtained results revealed that a higher critical flux was achieved by the PC/TiO₂ nanocomposite membrane. The flux recovery ratio of the neat PC membrane increased with the addition of TiO₂ nanoparticles and without PAC coagulant. HA removal for the PC nanocomposite membrane was higher than that of the neat PC membrane with and without PAC coagulant.