Triplet–triplet
annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) is a
process by which a lower energy photon can be upconverted to a higher
energy state. The incorporation of TTA-UC materials into solid-state
hosts has enabled advances in solar energy and many other applications.
The choice of host system is, however, far from trivial and often
calls for a careful compromise between characteristics such as high
molecular mobility, low oxygen diffusion, and high material stability,
factors that often contradict one another. Here, we evaluate these
challenges in the context of the state-of-the-art of primarily polymer
hosts and the advantages they hold in terms of material selection
and tunability of their diffusion or mechanical or thermal properties.
We encourage more collaborative research between polymer scientists
and photophysicists in order to further optimize the current systems
and outline our thoughts for the future direction of the field.
Organic-inorganic hybrid polymers based on ureasils have found application as waveguides in luminescent solar concentrators and visible light communications. The mechanical properties, and thus processability of ureasils, has previously been qualitatively linked to the chemical structure, but has not yet been studied in detail. In this study, a series of low molecular weight ureasil polymers has been synthesised, and the correlation between the chemical structure and the optical and mechanical properties investigated. A wide-range of techniques are employed to investigate this relationship, including steady-state photoluminescence and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, 4-point flexural testing, and uniaxial tensile testing.
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