Investigation of Host Polymers for Luminescent Solar Concentrators

One of the most important elements of a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is the host material. In this work, we investigate the key optical properties of eight polymeric host matrices. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC) based formulations exhibited the lowest internal absorbance within the spectral range of the absorption and emission bands of a red-emitting fluorescent organic dye (Lumogen Red 305). The dye absorbance was dependent on the host matrix and was higher for the PC-based formulations than the other polymers. However, two different doping concentrations were used, and the higher concentration led to the absorption of more than 90% of the incident photons within the absorption band of the dye in all cases. The overall optical efficiency with respect to edge emission from 60 mm x 60mm x 3.2 mm LSCs varied within an absolute value of 1% for the eight host matrices investigated. The best result achieved in terms of optical efficiency was 8.9% for PMMA- and PC-based hosts.