Seminars

Absorption of light brings molecules into an activated state. From this state radiative processes can occur, but much more interesting are the nonradiative, dark processes in which the photon energy is transformed into other forms such as mechanical and chemical energy.

Stellarators, the twisted siblings of the axisymmetric fusion experiments called tokamaks, have historically suffered from confining the heat of the plasma insufficiently compared with tokamaks and were therefore considered to be less promising candidates for a fusion reactor.

Solar energy driven processes with H2O and CO2 as basic feedstocks can produce ‘‘solar fuels’’ that could substitute their fossil based counterparts. This presentation summarizes the main findings of techno-economic research on systems that can generate different types of fuels with renewable energy as starting point.

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals are versatile nanomaterials, whose properties are determined by their size, shape (quantum dots and nanorods, nanosheets, nanowires), composition, and compositional profile (i.e., single component, gradient or homogeneous alloy, doped, heterostructured).

The main lines of the climate agreement are now known, but what do we actually want precisely? And can we direct this transition? Or will we be overtaken by technology? This seminar will be on policy, scenarios, heat pumps and the sense and nonsense of hydrogen.