Transparent Luminescent Solar Concentrators Using Ln<sup>3+</sup>-Based Ionosilicas Towards Photovoltaic Windows
Ana R. Frias,
Marita A. Cardoso,
Ana R. N. Bastos,
Sandra F. H. Correia,
Paulo S. André,
Luís D. Carlos,
Veronica de Zea Bermudez,
Rute A. S. Ferreira
Affiliations
Ana R. Frias
Department of Physics and CICECO—Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Marita A. Cardoso
Department of Physics and CICECO—Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Ana R. N. Bastos
Department of Physics and CICECO—Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Sandra F. H. Correia
Department of Physics and CICECO—Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Paulo S. André
Department of Electric and Computer Engineering and Instituto de Telecomunicações, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Luís D. Carlos
Department of Physics and CICECO—Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Veronica de Zea Bermudez
Department of Chemistry and CQ-VR, University of Traś-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Rute A. S. Ferreira
Department of Physics and CICECO—Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
The integration of photovoltaic (PV) elements in urban environments is gaining visibility due to the current interest in developing energetically self-sustainable buildings. Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) may be seen as a solution to convert urban elements, such as façades and windows, into energy-generation units for zero-energy buildings. Moreover, LSCs are able to reduce the mismatch between the AM1.5G spectrum and the PV cells absorption. In this work, we report optically active coatings for LSCs based on lanthanide ions (Ln3+ = Eu3+, Tb3+)-doped surface functionalized ionosilicas (ISs) embedded in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). These new visible-emitting films exhibit large Stokes-shift, enabling the production of transparent coatings with negligible self-absorption and large molar extinction coefficient and brightness values (~2 × 105 and ~104 M−1∙cm−1, respectively) analogous to that of orange/red-emitting organic dyes. LSCs showed great potential for efficient and environmentally resistant devices, with optical conversion efficiency values of ~0.27% and ~0.34%, respectively.
