Soft luminescent solar concentrator film with organic dye and rubbery matrix

Abstract

We propose a soft luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) with superior light propagation. The rubbery poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) was adopted to replace the conventional brittle poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). We analyzed the transmittance, photoluminescence efficiency, crystallinity, and surface properties of LSC to understand the optical and structural properties of the LSC. In addition, we modified the optical slab model to provide insights into the optical phenomenon in plate-type LSC devices; we evaluated the solar absorption efficiency of the glass and emitting layers. We also evaluated the solar concentration performances of the LSC devices by measuring the photocurrent density generated using a monocrystalline silicon solar cell. We compared the transporting ability of emitted light into an edge by calculating the collection efficiency based on the concentration factor and optical efficiencies (absorption and photoluminescence). The concentration factor, optical efficiency, and collection efficiency of the EVA-LSC with 4000 ppm of Lumogen F Red 305 were 0.31, 3.1, and 40%, respectively. The overall optical properties of the EVA-LSC were comparable to those of the PMMA-LSC. Moreover, the light decay property of EVA-LSC was superior by 1.2 times than PMMA-LSC. Therefore, we suggest EVA can replace PMMA and be used for flexible and large-area LSC applications.