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报告人：Prof. Andries Meijerink
Rare Earths for a Sustainable Earth
The themes Earth and Sustainability have been high on the scientific and political agenda for decades now. The Rare Earths or Lanthanides are however not well known. The name Lanthanides is derived from the Greek word “λανθανειν” (to lie hidden) and this group of elements indeed lies hidden at the bottom of the periodic table. More recently, the Rare Earth made it in the news and it became better known in society that these elements play a key role in many high tech applications, including many solutions to make our society more sustainable. The sharp rise in price (more than tenfold in one year) and supply problems for high tech companies made the world realize how important rare earths are.
In this lecture an introduction will be given on the assumed rarity and production of rare earths. After this the unique chemical, magnetic and optical properties will be explained and related to the role of rare earths in sustainability, e.g. windmills, hybrid cars, batteries, catalysts and lighting. In the final part of the presentation the role in lighting and spectral conversion for solar cells will be explained in more detail. Rare earths play a key role in energy efficient lighting and are applied as efficient light emitters in almost all artificial light sources, including fluorescent tubes, displays and white light LEDs, optical data communication, glow-in-the-dark materials, lasers, medical imaging, homeland security etc. The possibility upconvert (adding up) and downconvert (cut into two) photons has the potential to raise the efficiency of solar cells significantly. The final topic will be money and the role of rare earths in Euro and RMB banknotes, and I will end with a Chemystery.
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Andries Meijerink received his MSc and PhD degree in Chemistry at Utrecht University. After a post-doc in Madison (University of Wisconsin) he returned to Utrecht in 1991. In 1996, at the age of 32, he was appointed at the chair of Solid State Chemistry in the Debye Institute of Utrecht University where he leads an active group in the field of luminescence spectroscopy of quantum dots and lanthanide ions. In the field of lanthanide ions his work involves fundamental research on the energy level structure of both 4fn and 4fn-15d states and finding new concepts related to applications in solar cells, LEDs and scintillators. His research on quantum dots is aimed at unraveling the influence of quantum confinement and surface effects on the electronic structure and exciton dynamics of quantum dots through optical spectroscopy and using the quantum dots as labels in bio-imaging. Research on luminescence of doped nanocrystals integrates the two themes. Recent work has resulted in a better fundamental understanding of photonic effects on optical processes, insight in energy transfer processes and application of luminescent nanocrystals as probes. For his research Andries Meijerink received several awards, including the Shell Incentive Award (1995), the Gold Medal of the Royal Dutch Chemical Society (1999), the Centennial Award for Luminescence and Display Materials from the Electrochemical Society (2002), the Gilles-Holst medal of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (2019) and the ICL-Prize (2020). In 2009 he was elected into the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
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