Greenhouse-gas spectral overlap 2026-10-20
Overlap of a gas absorption spectrum with existing atmospheric absorption changes its incremental radiative effect. A strong band in an already opaque spectral interval can contribute less additional outgoing-flux reduction than a weaker band in a window. Pressure broadening, altitude, temperature and the source spectrum also matter.
For the absorption spectrum, pass a scanned monochromatic beam through the solution and a matched solvent reference. Record the incident and transmitted intensities and calculate the absorbance , using an appropriate blank and concentration to avoid saturation.
For the fluorescence emission spectrum, excite at a fixed wavelength within an absorption band, collect emission away from the incident beam, commonly at , and scan an emission monochromator. Correct the detected signal for wavelength-dependent detector sensitivity, subtract solvent/background light and exclude scattered excitation light. The two plotted vertical scales have been independently normalized; their equal peak heights do not imply equal absorption and emission rates or unit fluorescence quantum yield.
With the graphene lattice-vector length , the carbon nanotube chiral vector is . The vectors meet at , givingHere is circumference, diameter, and the carbon nanotube chiral angle is measured from the zigzag direction. Nanotube zone folding gives a nominal metallic tube when and a semiconducting tube otherwise. Evaluating all the supplied indices gives the following derived results:All eleven listed tubes are semiconducting in the zone-folding classification. Curvature can open small gaps in some nominally metallic non-armchair tubes, but none of these indices falls in that nominal metallic class.
Diameter gives a useful inverse-size trend in transition energies, and the full chiral indices constrain the electronic band structure much more strongly. They do not by themselves give the perceived solution colour through a simple geometrical rule: one needs the visible absorption spectrum, transition strengths and widths, exciton/environment shifts, concentration, optical path and illumination. The observed transmitted colour is complementary to the absorbed spectrum, not a direct label for the band gap. Structure-assigned excitation–emission measurements provide an experimental connection between chiral structure and optical transitions.[ref]
Structure-assigned optical spectra of single-walled carbon nanotubes by Sergei M. Bachilo and others. Science 298 (2002), pp. 2361–2366, structure assignment of semiconducting-tube optical transitions