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Thermoresponsive Host Polymer Matrix for Self-Healing Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Tatsi, E 
Rigatelli, B 
Lyu, G 

Abstract

© 2019 American Chemical Society. Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are a promising solar energy technology for reducing architectural barriers to the integration of photovoltaic systems into the built environment. In this work, the first demonstration of thin-film LSCs based on a thermally reversible cross-linked host polymer is presented. This smart material is obtained via a dynamic-chemistry approach based on the Diels-Alder (DA) reaction between a furan-functionalized acrylic copolymer and an aliphatic bismaleimide to obtain optically clear, cross-linked systems capable of healing mechanical damage upon heat treatment. By carefully tuning the concentration of a perylene-based luminophore dopant, an optical efficiency as high as 4.9% can be achieved with this DA-based LSC. In addition, full recovery of device efficiency is demonstrated after complete thermal healing of mechanically induced surface damages as a result of the embedded DA functionality. The approach presented here paves the way to the development of highly efficient multifunctional thermoresponsive smart LSC systems.

Description

Keywords

luminescent solar concentrators, self-healing polymers, Diels-Alder, stimuli-responsive polymers, photovoltaics, coatings

Journal Title

ACS Applied Energy Materials

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2574-0962
2574-0962

Volume Title

3

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Rights

Publisher's own licence
Sponsorship
European Research Council (818762)
European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 818762)