Luminescent Solar Concentrator Paintings: Connecting Art and Energy

Abstract

The increased awareness of greenhouse gas emissions on long-term climate trends has put the spotlight back on the development of renewable energy technologies to mitigate these processes. Solar based electricity generation has gained widespread recognition as a viable source of renewable energy but has been slowed by a number of factors including cost and available application areas. Luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) are being investigated as a low-cost route to expand solar energy harvesting into new spaces. With this demonstration, we develop kits for educating students about renewable and solar energy while promoting a sense of creativity often lacking in STEM demonstrations. Students design LSC devices by painting newly developed luminescent dyes on plastic waveguides. Thin solar cell strips are mounted around the edges of the LSC paintings to generate power. Creativity in design, a central part of scientific discovery and advancement, is promoted throughout the painting and testing of LSC materials.

Laboratory protocols for measuring and reporting the performance of luminescent solar concentrators

“…However, individual edge values or an aggregate total thereof must be reported for asymmetric structures 32 or for devices with a non-uniform surface coverage of luminescent species. 39 The total number of absorbed photons may be determined by convolution of the absorption spectrum of the lightguide measured on a standard spectrophotometer and the spectrum of the incident light source. Since photon transport losses scale with device dimension, 40 the effect of poor lightguide quality or device construction may be difficult to ascertain for smaller samples, and the true impact may only be obvious upon scale-up.…”

Luminescent Solar Collectors: Quo Vadis?

“…Efficiency under diffuse light and limited angular dependence on incident light are specific advantages of LSCs for BIPV [5][6][7]257,265] in addition to their multiple possibilities of color and shape that also open large possibilities for artistic creation. [264,[266][267][268][269] For example, Kerrouche et al have analyzed a large number of LSCs of various shapes and colors and presented a model of artistic stained-glass window with an optical peak power of 5 W under 1000 W m -2 illumination. [266] The design of LSCs for solar window application cannot exclusively focus on performances but requires the definition of appropriate balance between efficiency, optical transparency, and social acceptability.…”

Building an Organic Solar Cell: Fundamental Procedures for Device Fabrication

“…In the conventional configuration of a bulk heterojunction organic solar cell (Figure 1a) [9][10][11][12], a transparent substrate; which can be made of glass and rigid or made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and flexible, is coated with a transparent conductor that serves as the anode. The transparent substrate and anode allow light to pass through so that it may be exploited by the photoactive layer.…”

“…This transporting layer operates as an electron blocking layer and at the same time serves as a hole conductor. This dual function lowers a lot the recombination rates and thus enhances the performance of the photovoltaic device [9,13]. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is one of the most widely used HTL in organic solar cells [14].…”

“…Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is one of the most widely used HTL in organic solar cells [14]. In BHJ organic solar cells, the active layer typically consists of a blend of an electron donor and electron acceptor materials [9]. The active layer consists of a mixture of a fullerene derivative e.g., ( [6,6]-PhenylC71butyric acid methyl ester, named PC71BM (the electron acceptor) and a conjugated polymer e.g., (Poly[ [4,8- (a) A schematic representation of the structure of the bulk heterojunction organic solar cell device designed following this experimental procedure.…”