Luminescent Solar Concentrators from Waterborne Polymer Coatings

Abstract

<jats:p>This study reports for the first time the use of waterborne polymers as host matrices for luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). Notably, three types of waterborne polymer dispersions based either on acrylic acid esters and styrene (Polidisp® 7602), acrylic and methacrylic acid esters (Polidisp® 7788) or aliphatic polyester-based polyurethane (Tecfin P40) were selected as amorphous coatings over glass substrates. Water soluble Basic Yellow 40 (BY40) and Disperse Red 277 (DR277) were utilized as fluorophores and the derived thin polymer films (100 μm) were found homogeneous within the dye range of concentration investigated (0.3–2 wt.%). The optical efficiency determination (ηopt) evidenced LSCs performances close to those collected from benchmark polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) thin films and Lumogen Red F350 (LR) with the same experimental setup. Noteworthy, maximum ηopt of 9.5 ± 0.2 were recorded for the Polidisp® 7602 matrix containing BY40, thus definitely supporting the waterborne polymer matrices for the development of high performance and cost-effective LSCs.</jats:p>

Waterborne Acrylic Resin Containing Luminescent Eu3+ Pigments for Luminescent Solar Concentrators

“…This behavior reflected the increasing efficiencies gathered by the amount of pigments able to harvest sunlight, counterbalanced by the increasing probability of fluorescence dissipation at high doping levels possibly caused by the predominant scattering events, especially at 20 wt.% of Lu Red. Considering the maximum η ext of 6% reached in the literature from the state‐of‐the‐art LSC system based on PMMA and LR, [ 43 ] values close to 4.5% measured in this work appeared very promising for developing the technology based on using waterborne acrylic matrices and water‐soluble [ 34 ] or ‐dispersable fluorophores.…”

“…[ 3,27,28 ] For example, polymers from renewable resources or from sustainable routes like L‐poly(lactic acid) (L‐PLA) [ 29 ] cellulose nanocrystals [ 30 ] fluorescent proteins [ 31,32 ] and aliphatic polyesters [ 33 ] were proposed as “green” alternatives to PMMA. Remarkably, waterborne polymers based on acrylic or polyurethane resins and containing water‐soluble fluorophores have been used as amorphous coatings for LSC as well, [ 34 ] with performances that were considered promising being close to those collected from benchmark PMMA/LR systems.…”

Review of the Fundamental Principles and Performances on Lminescent Solar Concentrators

“…The FRET effect was also used to obtain the second highest concentration factor of 2.72, for which a mirror was added to the device design to maximize the concentration factor [10]. The third highest concentration factor of 1.58 was achieved using a single organic luminescent material with a diffuser plate at the back of the LSC [28]. Indeed, organic luminescent materials are a common factor linking the three LSCs with the best concentration factors included here.…”

Minimizing Scaling Losses in High-Performance Quantum Dot Luminescent Solar Concentrators for Large-Area Solar Windows

“…Alternative approaches have been used to increase the efficiency of LSCs. Photonic crystal layers have been shown to enhance the collection of solar radiation in LSCs. , Modifying the formulation of the polymer interlayer in which the fluorophores are embedded has also been investigated. , The use of polymeric distributed Bragg reflectors on the back face of SilaFluo-based LSCs has led to optical conversion efficiencies up to 10.3%, demonstrating 10% enhancement over the reference device . Finally, an interesting engineering approach using tandem LSCs based on two types of nearly reabsorption-free QDs spectrally tuned for optimal solar spectrum splitting allows to achieve a PCE of 3.1% for LSCs with an area of >230 cm 2 .…”