Abandoned Buildings in Contemporary Cities: Smart Conditions for Actions

The issue concerning unused buildings revolves around the fact that they constitute a huge real estate asset for which there is no longer a demand. How-ever, this is an asset that has been subject to significant investment and, therefore, three crucial questions spontaneously arise: (i) Can these abandoned assets still be useful? (ii) What does it mean to enhance their value? and (iii) What are the suitable conditions for launching innovative development processes? This chapter provides a possible answer to the three key questions

Energy transfer in the system of PbS quantum dots

This work is devoted the investigation of the process of nonradiative energy transfer via FRET mechanism between lead sulphide QDs of different size in the porous matrix and on the glass surface at both room and decreased temperatures. As a result, we observed quenching of photoluminescence (PL) for donors together with flare-up of PL of acceptors, which was accompanied by significant increasing of lifetimes of acceptors up to values characteristic for donors. This unexpected effect can be explained using three-level model which based on a complex energy structure of PbS quantum dots-donors, which are involved in the energy transfer. The observed effect can lead to a significant change in the dynamic characteristics of the charge carriers in quantum dot solar cells