Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can serve as solar energy collectors and couple with photovoltaic (PVs) to build LSC-PV system for enhanced solar energy output. the LSCs can significantly reduce the total material consumption of solar panels and simplify the design of multi-PV devices. In the recent LSC studies, researchers commonly use Doctor-Blade coating, spin coating, and drop-casting method to fabricate an emitter/polymer composite thin layer onto transparent substrates to fabricate the LSC devices. However, considering the fabrication cost, equipment limitation, substrate geometry concern, and industry-scale fabrication, innovative fabrication approaches still need to be developed. Herein, we report a new technique to fabricate thin fluorescent film with minimal surface artifacts for LSCs, which could essentially reduce the photon scattering effect and simplify the fabrication process. Meanwhile, the produced micro-scale droplets could reduce the emitters’ aggregation during the coating process. Moreover, the coating quality is largely independent of coating solution composition, coating thickness, and substrate dimensions, making it possible to program the LSC photon capture abilities, transmission properties, and final energy output efficiencies. Therefore, this technique provided an alternative method for fabricating large-scale LSC devices with tunable transparency and flexible geometry design.

Innovative coating method for luminescent solar concentrator fabrication

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.