Abstract
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) provide a transformative approach to integrating photovoltaics into a built environment. In this paper, we report thin-film LSCs composed of intramolecular charge transfer fluorophore (DACT-II) and discuss the effect of two polymers, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and poly (benzyl methacrylate) (PBzMA) on the performance of large-area LSCs. As observed experimentally, DACT-II with the charge-donating diphenylaminocarbazole and charge-accepting triphenyltriazine moieties shows a large Stokes shift and limited re-absorption losses in both polymers. Our results show that thin-film LSC (10 × 10 × 0.3 cm3) with optimized concentration (0.9 wt%) of DACT-II in PBzMA gives better performance than that in the PMMA matrix. In particular, optical conversion efficiency (ηopt) and power-conversion efficiency (ηPCE) of DACT-II/PBzMA LSC are 2.32% and 0.33%, respectively, almost 1.2 times higher than for DACT-II/PMMA LSC.
Highlights
Due to rapid urbanization, a considerable increase in global energy consumption has been observed over the past several decades
In the case of bulk luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), light-emissive fluorophores are embedded in the optically transparent slab of polymer, while a thin-film LSC consists of fluorophores mixed with the polymer matrix to form a thin film on the haze-free glass
The re-emitted photons are trapped within the polymer slab or glass substrate due to the total internal reflection (TIR) process and are directed to its edges, where they are transformed into electricity by attached PV cells (Figure 1) [5,6]
Summary
A considerable increase in global energy consumption has been observed over the past several decades. Buildings utilize around 30% of energy worldwide, due to cooling, heating, and artificial-lighting loads [1,2]. In the case of bulk LSC, light-emissive fluorophores are embedded in the optically transparent slab of polymer, while a thin-film LSC consists of fluorophores mixed with the polymer matrix to form a thin film on the haze-free glass. In both cases, fluorophores absorb incident sunlight and re-emit it at longer wavelengths.
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