Carbon is essential to our existence. However, its utilization also has a dark side. Its combustion emits CO2 which leads to global warming and extreme weather. Moreover, the dumping of carbon waste (e.g. plastics) also contributes to the global waste crisis. To break out of this carbon dilemma would require a change from business as usual i.e. a transformation from a linear to circular carbon economy where carbon resources are no longer combusted for energy but are instead chemically utilized and channeled back into the carbon cycle at the end of their lifespan.

In Germany, lignite and carbon waste are valuable domestic primary and secondary carbon resources. While both are predominantly combusted for energy and heat, there is a stepwise reduction of lignite utilization as part of Germany’s Energy Transition Project. Moreover, there is increasing interest in the potential of waste as chemical raw material. One concept to facilitate a circular carbon economy is to couple the energy, waste and chemical sectors and use lignite and waste as feedstock for chemical production. This proposed sector coupling is associated with various advantages for Germany.

While attractive in theory, a successful implementation of alternative carbon feedstock for the chemical industry faces significant challenges. Not only does it require considerable changes along technological, economic and environmental dimensions, it furthermore poses substantial difficulties for political and societal stakeholders in the public realm. To illustrate, lignite is a controversial issue in Germany. Public discussions and political decisions are thus not necessarily dominated by critical thinking and fact-based discourse but are also strongly emotional.

This presentation shares insights from a representative survey carried out in November 2017 to assess German’s citizens’ knowledge and perception of diverse domestic carbon resources as alternative raw material for chemical production. The relevance of study insights in supporting the identification of opportunities and conflict areas that policy and industry decision-makers will need to address in order to support a successful transformation of the carbon economy will be discussed.Colloidal plasmonic nanocrystals exhibit notably attractive optical properties. They have proven to be of enormous potential in a wide range of applications. To fully realize their technological potential and further explore their fundamental plasmonic properties relies on the ready availability of high-quality, high-performance nanocrystal products at different amount scales. We have made tremendous efforts over the past decade on the development of synthetic methods for colloidal metal nanocrystals. We have been able to synthesize several types of highly uniform colloidal Au and Ag nanocrystals; we have investigated and understood their plasmonic properties; and we have explored a variety of plasmon-enabled applications. In this presentation, I will first describe how we make colloidal plasmonic nanocrystals. I will then talk about plasmon-enhanced photocatalysis and active plasmon switching. Finally I will mention two most recent developments in our group, namely, magnetic plasmon resonance and high-refractive-index dielectric nanostructures, in the field of nanoplasmonics and nanophotonics.

Roh Pin Lee副研究员，博士，担任德国弗莱贝格工业大学能源工艺工程和化学工程研究所“技术评估”组组长。曾获得德国弗莱贝格工业大学Georgius勋章以及杰出学术贡献奖，第三届政治科学、社会学和国际关系国际年会优秀学生论文奖，第12届商业与经济发展国际会议最佳论文奖。对于全球碳资源的利用以及转型发展有着深入的研究。近年来发表本领域主流SCI和EI期刊论文多篇，参加多次国际能源领域口头汇报。