High-density well-aligned ZnO nanorod array was successfully synthesized on a PLD prepared undoped ZnO film by a catalyst-free method. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy show that the nanorods are well-oriented perpendicular to the substrate. The photoluminescence from free excitons and Raman spectra of the ZnO nanorods reflect the high purity and nearly defect free structure of nanorods. The well-aligned feature of the nanorod array is attributed to the nanorods’ epitaxial growth from the ZnO film.

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[1] Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is an effective strategy for water resources management and has been widely used in many contaminated and saline aquifers. However, its recovery efficiency (RE) may be significantly affected by mass transfer limitations. A numerical model is developed to simulate ASR performance by combining the convergent and divergent dispersion models with a first-order mass transfer model. By analyzing the concentration history at the pumping well, we obtain simple and effective relationships for investigating ASR efficiency under various mass transfer parameters, including capacity ratio and mass transfer timescale, and operational parameters, including injection durations and well-pumping rates. On the basis of such relationships, one can conveniently determine whether a site with mass transfer limitations is appropriate or not for ASR and how many ASR cycles are required for achieving a positive RE. Results indicate that the immobile domain may function as a contaminant source or sink or both during the recovery phase and RE usually improves with well-flow rate, the decrease of capacity ratio, and the ASR cycles. However, RE is a nonmonotonic function of the mass transfer timescale and the injection duration. A critical timescale is given for quantifying this nonmonotonic behavior. When the injection period is greater than such a critical value, increasing injection period results in a higher RE. Contrarily, when the injection period is less than the critical value, increasing the injection period may even yield a lower RE.

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The complex dielectric functions of Si-nanocrystals (nc-Si) with different sizes embedded in SiO2 matrix synthesized by SiOx/SiO2 superlattice approach is obtained by spectroscopic ellipsometry. The Maxwell–Garnett effective medium approximation and the Lorentz oscillator model are employed in the spectra fitting. The dependence of the dielectric functions on the nc-Si size is observed. A significant suppression in amplitude of the dielectric functions with respect to bulk crystalline silicon, and a large influence of the nc-Si size on the E1 and E2 critical points are observed and discussed.