In current study, the dye from flowers petals of Strelitzia reginae used for the first time to prepare natural photosensitizer for DSSC fabrication. Among five different solvents used to extract the natural dye from S. reginae flowers, the ethanol extract of anthocyanin dye revealed higher absorption spectrum of 0.757a.u. at wavelength of 454nm.  A major effect of temperature was studied to increase the extraction yield. The results show that the optimal temperature was 70 °C and there was a sharp decrease of dye concentration from 0.827 at temperature of 70 °C to 0.521 at temperature of 90°C. The extract solution of flowers of S. reginae showed higher co

A recently reported Nile red (NR) dye conjugated with benzothiadiazole species paves the way for the development of novel organic-based sensitizers used in solar cells whose structures are susceptible to modifications. Thus, six novel NR structures were derived from two previously developed structures in laboratories. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) calculations and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) were used to determine the optoelectronic properties of the NR-derived moieties such as absorption spectra. Various linkers were investigated in an attempt to understand the impact of π-linkers on the optoelectronic properties. According to the findings, the presence of furan species led to the planarity of the molecule and a reduction

Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was used to analyze gasoline engine oil (SAE 5W20) samples that were exposed to seven different oxidation times (0 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 96 h, 120 h, and 144 h) to determine the best wavenumbers and wavenumber ranges for the discrimination of the oxidation times. The thermal oxidation process generated oil samples with varying total base number (TBN) levels. Each wavenumber (400–3900 cm−1) and wavenumber ranges identified from the literature and this study were statistically analyzed to determine which wavenumbers and wavenumber ranges could discriminate among all oxidation times. Linear regression was used with the best wavenumbers and wavenumber ranges to predict oxidation time.

In this study, experimental mortar combinations with 1% micro steel fibers, were examined to create geopolymer mortars. To test the effect of the fibers on the mortar's resistance, the geopolymer mortar was designed with various proportions of more environmentally friendly materials fly ash and slag. The percentage of fly ash by weight was 50, 60, and 70% of the slag. The best results were obtained when a 50:50 ratio of fly ash and slag were mixed with 1% micro steel fibers. The results showed that the mixtures containing fibers performed better in the considered tests (toughness index, ductility index, and resilience index). In the impact resistance test, the mixture contained 50% fly ash by weight of the slag with a temperature of

The aim of this study is to investigate the antibacterial capabilities of different coating durations of three nanoparticle (NP) coatings: molybdenum (Mo), tantalum (Ta), and zinc oxide (ZnO), and their effects on the surface characteristics of 316L stainless steel (SS). The coated substrates underwent characterization utilizing field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) techniques. The antibacterial efficacy of NPs was evaluated using the agar diffusion method. The FE-SEM and EDX images confirmed the presence of nano-sized particles of Mo, Ta, and ZnO on the surface of the substrates with perfectly symmetrical spheres and a uniform distribution of

Low- and medium-carbon structural steel components face random vibration and dynamic loads (like earthquakes) in many applications. Thus a modification to improve their mechanical properties, essentially damping properties, is required. The present study focuses on improving and developing these properties, significantly dampening properties, without losing the other mechanical properties. The specimens used in the present study are structural steel ribbed bar ISO 6935 subjected to heating temperatures of (850, 950, and 1050) ˚C, and cooling schemes of annealing, normalizing, sand, and quenching was selected. The damping properties of the specimens were measured experimentally with the area under the curve for the loadi

Abstract

In the present work, thermal diffusivity and heat capacity measurements have been investigated in temperature range between RT and 1473 K for different duplex stainless steel supplied by Outokumpu Stainless AB, Sweden. The purpose of this study is to get a reliable thermophysical data of these alloys and to study the effect of microstructure on the thermal diffusivity and heat capacity value. Results show the ferrite content in the duplex stainless steel increased with temperature at equilibrium state. On the other hand, ferrite content increased with increasing Cr/Ni ratio and there is no significant effect of ferrite content on the thermal diffusivity value at room temperature. Furthermore, the heat capacity of all sam