Effects of Fabrication Methods on the Performance of Luminescent Solar Concentrators Based on Doped Polymer Optical Fibers

Abstract

In this work, we detail two types of fabrication processes of four polymer optical fibers doped with lumogen dyes. The fiber preforms have been manufactured with two different methods: extrusion and casting. We have compared the performance of the two types of fibers as luminescent solar concentrators by calculating their optical efficiencies and concentration factors. The obtained results show better performance for those fibers manufactured by the casting process. We have also studied the photostability of the two types of fibers doped with the dye lumogen red under solar light radiation. A high thermal stability of the doped fibers has been observed.

Temperature effects on the emission of polymer optical fibers doped with Lumogen dyes

“…It is a well-known fact that the optical bands shift to lower wavelengths as the dye dopant concentration decreases. Indeed, we have detected this effect in POFs doped with different LR concentrations [24]. Fig.…”

“…In order to analyze the behavior of LSCs under more real operating conditions, we have applied thermal cycles to the fiber that shows better performance as LSC, namely the LR-doped fiber [24]. The simulated thermal cycles are shown in Fig.…”

“…The fibers analyzed in this study are POFs doped with the commercially available perylene derivative dyes, LR and LO. The fibers were fabricated by the authors using the casting method for the preform manufacturing [24]. The Lumogen series of dyes developed by BASF combine high quantum efficiency together with low photodegradation and they were specifically designed for LSCs.…”

“…No deformation of the analyzed fiber samples was detected after heating/ cooling them. The characterization of the fibers as solar concentrators has been also carried out in [24].…”

Geometric optics analysis of inverted graded index fibers

“…Likewise, IGI fibers are expected to play a key role in the development of solar energy technologies and boost the transition towards clean energy, since the manufacture of inverted graded index polymer optical fibers with embedded photo luminescent entities will enable their use as luminescent solar concentrators [20,21]. For instance, in IGI fibers featuring a radially-growing dopant distribution (dyes, quantum dots, doped-scattering nanoparticles or any efficient combination of them), most of the dopants accumulate in the proximity of the fiber-air interface, facilitating the absorption of sunlight and its subsequent re-emission as fluorescence light that is collected in the fiber ends, where the photovoltaic cells are placed for the energy conversion [22][23][24].…”