Donor-emitter fluorophore pairs in luminescent solar concentrators: from material synthesis to device fabrication

Abstract

A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is a type of light harvesting device, showing potential as an alternative to the traditional photovoltaics (PV). A typical LSC consists of a planar waveguide system embedded with fluorophores, which absorb light incident on the surface and confines the emission to the edges. As the surface area of the LSC is much bigger than the edge area, the incident light can be concentrated. A PV cell attached to the edge will convert the output light into electricity. Although there are many advantages of LSCs, the unsatisfactory efficiency of LSCs still limits their wide applications. There are four major energy loss pathways of LSCs, which are 1. the photolumines..