Sol–gel coatings: An alternative route for producing planar optical waveguides

Rey-García, F.; Gómez-Reino, Carlos; Flores-Arias, M. T.; Fuente, G.F. de la; Durán, Alicia; Castro, Yolanda

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2011.05.054

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The stability question raised by organic polymer waveguides has led to the investigation of inorganic glasses (e.g. silica-zirconia and silica-titania) [70] and organic-inorganic hybrids [18] as potential alternatives as waveguides. While pure glass waveguides have a high refractive index, their weight and fragility limits their useful application in building integrated photovoltaics.…”

Section: Organic-inorganic Hybrid Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Efficient Spectral Converters through Materials Design for Luminescent Solar Devices

2017

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Single-junction photovoltaic devices exhibit a bottleneck in their efficiency due to incomplete or inefficient harvesting of photons in the low- or high-energy regions of the solar spectrum. Spectral converters can be used to convert solar photons into energies that are more effectively captured by the photovoltaic device through a photoluminescence process. Here, recent advances in the fields of luminescent solar concentration, luminescent downshifting, and upconversion are discussed. The focus is specifically on the role that materials science has to play in overcoming barriers in the optical performance in all spectral converters and on their successful integration with both established (e.g., c-Si, GaAs) and emerging (perovskite, organic, dye-sensitized) cell types. Current challenges and emerging research directions, which need to be addressed for the development of next-generation luminescent solar devices, are also discussed.

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Section: Organic-inorganic Hybrid Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Efficient Spectral Converters through Materials Design for Luminescent Solar Devices

2017

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“…Several new materials and composites such as poly(lactic acid), unsaturated polyester, sol‐gel glasses like silica‐zirconia and silica‐titania, and organic–inorganic hybrids such as polysiloxanes, silsesquioxanes, and di‐urethane‐silica have been proposed as potential alternatives to PMMA. Among these, the organic–inorganic hybrids are particularly attractive due to their ability to simultaneously exhibit properties of both components such as easy processability, tunability, and mechanical stability .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Response of High‐Efficiency, Planar, Doped Luminescent Solar Concentrators Using Organic–Inorganic Di‐Ureasil Waveguides

Kaniyoor

McKenna

Comby

et al. 2015

Advanced Optical Materials

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Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) offer significant potential for solar energy capture in the urban environment. Here, the first example of a planar, doped LSC using Lumogen Red (LR305) as the luminophore and a di‐ureasil organic–inorganic hybrid as the waveguide is reported. The di‐ureasil waveguide offers several advantages over organic polymer waveguides including facile solution‐processing from benign solvents and extension of the absorption window through energy transfer. Spectral evaluation using absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies is used to optimize the LSC composition, yielding optical efficiencies as high as 14.5% (300–800 nm). A power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.54% is obtained for the champion LSC coupled to a c‐Si PV cell using the di‐ureasil precursor as an optical glue to minimize interfacial losses. Finally, a simple figure of merit to evaluate the performance of LSC‐solar cell composite systems is proposed that enables comparison of the actual improvement in the efficiency of solar cells due to the attachment of the LSC, irrespective of the LSC design, architecture or materials. A PCE of 17.4% for the solar cell in the emission region of the LSC is obtained, which is a remarkable improvement of ≈40% over its AM 1.5G value.

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“…. The microstructure and properties of sol‐gel coatings depend on the synthesis parameters . In particular, TiO 2 , SiO 2 , and ZrO 2 containing films have been successfully prepared by sol‐gel for different applications, including photocatalytic, anticorrosion, or scratch resistance coatings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repair and Restoration of the Optical Properties of Sandblasted Glasses By Silica‐Based Sol‐Gel Coatings

Marouani

Bouaouadja

Castro

et al. 2014

Int J of Appl Glass Sci

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The damage provoked by sand storms in Sahara desert to windscreen of vehicles and solar mirrors is a problem. Different solutions have been proposed, one of them is the application of polymeric coatings, but they rapidly degrade. In this work, we have deposited silica-based sol-gel coatings including silica nanoparticles onto sandblasted glasses. The glasses were eroded by sandblasting varying the projected sand mass and the incidence angle to obtain different surface states. The eroded samples were coated by dipping with a silica layer to correct the defects induced by sandblasting and restore the optical transmission. The damage increases with increasing projected mass and the impact angle. The optical transmission decreases with increasing damage. In extreme conditions, optical transmission falls from 91.5% to 68.6%. The deposition of silica-based layers containing SiO 2 colloidal nanoparticles promotes the repairing of sandblasting defects. A strong decrease of roughness to values similar to those of as-received glass is related with the increasing of the optical transmission up to levels permitting of windscreens and solar mirrors. Transmittance measurements showed a remarkable improvement in all cases, whatever the projected sand mass or the impact angle. For highly degraded samples, the transmission increases from 68.6% to 91.4%, an improvement of near 23%. *castro@icv.csic.es

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Sol–gel coatings: An alternative route for producing planar optical waveguides

Cited by 22 publications

References 39 publications

Towards Efficient Spectral Converters through Materials Design for Luminescent Solar Devices

Towards Efficient Spectral Converters through Materials Design for Luminescent Solar Devices

Design and Response of High‐Efficiency, Planar, Doped Luminescent Solar Concentrators Using Organic–Inorganic Di‐Ureasil Waveguides

Repair and Restoration of the Optical Properties of Sandblasted Glasses By Silica‐Based Sol‐Gel Coatings

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