Pursuing Clean Energy Equitably

This is the final version of the report. Available from the publisher via the URL in this record.This paper explores the opportunities for a ‘just transition’ to low carbon and sustainable energy systems; one that addresses the current inequities in the distribution of energy benefits and their human and ecological costs. In order to prioritize policies that address energy poverty alleviation and sustainability concerns, national action and higher levels of international cooperation and coordination are required to steer public policy towards a broader range of public interests. This also implies re-directing the vast sums of private energy finance that currently serve a narrow set of interests. This paper considers how national and global energy governance must adapt and change to ensure a just transition to low carbon and sustainable energy systems. Creating a low carbon and sustainable energy transition will face significant challenges in overcoming opposition from a broad array of interest groups. The challenges of guiding a just transition are amplified by the relinquishing of government control over the energy sector in many countries and the current weak and fragmented state of global energy governance. The necessary changes in energy decision making will entail complex trade-offs and rebound effects that make strong, participatory and transparent institutional arrangements essential in order to govern such challenges equitably. In this respect, procedural justice is critical to achieving distributive justice and to creating a simultaneously rapid, sustainable and equitable transition to clean energy futures

Coherent coupling between surface plasmons and excitons in semiconductor nanocrystals

We present an experimental demonstration of strong coupling between a surface plasmon propagating on a planar silver substrate, and the lowest excited state of CdSe nanocrystals. Variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements demonstrated the formation of plasmon-exciton mixed states, characterized by a Rabi splitting of $\sim$ 82 meV at room temperature. Such a coherent interaction has the potential for the development of plasmonic non-linear devices, and furthermore, this system is akin to those studied in cavity quantum electrodynamics, thus offering the possibility to study the regime of strong light-matter coupling in semiconductor nanocrystals at easily accessible experimental conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Refinement and evaluation of an automated mass spectrometer for nitrogen isotope analysis by the Rittenberg technique

An apparatus designed to automatically perform hypobromite oxidations of ammonium salt samples for nitrogen isotope analyses with a mass spectrometer was modified to improve performance and reduce analysis time. As modified, reference N2 is admitted to the mass spectrometer between samples from a dedicated inlet manifold, for calibration at the same pressure as that of the preceding sample. Analyses can be performed on samples containing 10 μg to 1 mg of N (or more), at a rate of up to 350 samples/day. When operated with a double-collector mass spectrometer, the standard deviation at the natural abundance level (10 analyses, 50-150 μg N) was <0.0001 atom % 15N. Very little memory was observed when natural abundance samples (0.366 atom % 15N) were analysed. following samples containing 40 atom % 15N. Analyses in the range, 0.2 to 1 atom % 15N (50-150 μg N), were in good agreement with manual Rittenberg analyses (1 mg N) using a dual-inlet system, and precision was comparable. For enrichments of 2 to 20 atom % 15N, automated analyses were slightly lower than manual analyses, which was attributed to outgassing of N2 from the plastic microplate used to contain samples

Tunable infrared absorption by metal nanoparticles: The case for gold rods and shells

Nanoparticles of elements such as Au, Al or Ag have optical extinction cross-section that considerably surpass their geometric cross-sections at certain wavelengths of light. While the absorption and scattering maxima for nanospheres of these elements are relatively insensitive to particle diameter, the surface plasmon resonance of Au nanoshells and nanorods can be readily tuned from the visible into the infrared by changing the shape of the particle. Here we compare nanoshells and nanorods in terms of their ease of synthesis, their optical properties, and their longer term technological prospects as tunable "plasmonic absorbers". While both particle types are now routinely prepared by wet chemistry, we submit that it is more convenient to prepare rods. Furthermore, the plasmon resonance and peak absorption efficiency in nanorods may be readily tuned into the infrared by an increase of their aspect ratio, whereas in nanoshells such tuning may require a decrease in shell thickness to problematic dimensions

Four Imperatives Driving Business Schools to Adopt Mobile Content Delivery

Look around at people on any sidewalk, school hallway, classroom, and, most disturbingly, any car around yours on the road. You know that you are likely to see a staggering percentage of those people staring into the screen of a “smart” phone. Millennials and post-millennials are constantly “connected.” The Millennials even connect during class; at best to fact-check their teachers, at worst, to check the latest updates on Facebook. It will only get worse with the soon to arrive Post-Millennials who have been termed “millennials on steroids” by Lucie Green, the worldwide director of the Innovation Group at J. Walter Thompson. Post-millennials who account for a quarter of the U.S. population have not had to adapt to these devices. They were born into them and will expect nothing less than having them as a fixture in their learning experience. Significantly, the parents of post-millennials concur with their Generation Z offspring and believe that education technology has a positive influence on their children’s learning. Universities are struggling to catch up to this trend, with mixed results. Since teaching about the importance of detecting and acting proactively on macroenvironmental changes is part of its curriculum, it is particularly incumbent upon the AACSB-accredited business schools to lead the way for the rest of academe. This paper will report on the four main imperatives driving universities, and business schools in particular, to adopt mobile content delivery. Specifically, those imperatives are demographics, finances, ubiquitous technology, and concerns over accreditation. The current AACSB accreditation standards are built around three themes: innovation, impact, and engagement. Adopting mobile content delivery would seem to fit ideally within this new framework. This paper will discuss some innovative methods currently being employed by schools of business to utilize mobile delivery of teaching content. Finally, it will point out the advantages and the disadvantages associated with departing from the traditional classroom content delivery model

Nonlinear single-electron tunneling through individually coated colloid particles at room temperature

Single-electron tunneling (SET) has been observed with nanometer coated colloid gold particles at room temperature. We have made the smallest (3-nm) thiol- and silicon dioxide (SiO2)-coated gold particles, from which we obtained SET signals using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM)images reveal individual particles supported by an atomically flat metal surface. The STM tip is used to obtain SET signals from the individual particles, whose shapes have been characterized. The current-voltage curves of the particles exhibit well-defined Coulomb staircases that resemble those obtained at 4.2 K, indicating a strong Coulomb repulsive interaction at room temperature. The clear Coulomb staircases are due to a nonlinearity in the current steps. We suggest a possible mechanism for the nonlinearity in terms of many-body excitations in the particle. We have also identified the region of the particles, where the SET signal originates, using current-imaging-tunneling spectroscopy. We describe the advantages of using the coated nanometer particles for making devices for room-temperature operations

Chlorine isotope composition in chlorofluorocarbons CFC-11, CFC-12 and CFC-113 in firn, stratospheric and tropospheric air

The stratospheric degradation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) releases chlorine, which is a major contributor to the destruction of stratospheric ozone (O3). A recent study reported strong chlorine isotope fractionation during the breakdown of the most abundant CFC (CFC-12, CCl2F2, Laube et al., 2010a), similar to effects seen in nitrous oxide (N2O). Using air archives to obtain a long-term record of chlorine isotope ratios in CFCs could help to identify and quantify their sources and sinks. We analyse the three most abundant CFCs and show that CFC-11 (CCl3F) and CFC-113 (CClF2CCl2F) exhibit significant stratospheric chlorine isotope fractionation, in common with CFC-12. The apparent isotope fractionation (εapp) for mid- and high-latitude stratospheric samples are (-2.4±0.5) ‰ and (-2.3±0.4) ‰ for CFC-11, (-12.2±1.6) ‰ and (-6.8±0.8) ‰ for CFC-12 and (-3.5±1.5) ‰ and (-3.3±1.2) ‰ for CFC-113, respectively. Assuming a constant isotope composition of emissions, we calculate the expected trends in the tropospheric isotope signature of these gases based on their stratospheric 37Cl enrichment and stratosphere-troposphere exchange. We compare these projections to the long-term δ(37Cl) trends of all three CFCs, measured on background tropospheric samples from the Cape Grim air archive (Tasmania, 1978 – 2010) and tropospheric firn air samples from Greenland (NEEM site) and Antarctica (Fletcher Promontory site). From 1970 to the present-day, projected trends agree with tropospheric measurements, suggesting that within analytical uncertainties a constant average emission isotope delta is a compatible scenario. The measurement uncertainty is too high to determine whether the average emission isotope delta has been affected by changes in CFC manufacturing processes, or not. Our study increases the suite of trace gases amenable to direct isotope ratio measurements in small air volumes (approximately 200 ml), using a single-detector gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system