Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have been regarded as a promising solar energy technology for reducing architectural barriers to the integration of photovoltaic systems into the built environment. One major issue currently debated in the LSC field is the long-term durability of devices. In this respect, physical damages occurring to the surface of the LSC waveguide during its outdoor service-life (weathering phenomena, dust, solid particles) lead to a decay in the performance over long-term operation. Therefore, strategies to recover such surface damages are to be sought to ensure prolonged device lifetime and sustained efficiency. Within this framework, a novel smart LSC system based on a stimuli-responsive polymer with thermo-reversible crosslinking behaviour was developed in this work. This was achieved by exploiting a dynamic-chemistry approach based on the Diels-Alder (DA) reaction between a new furan-functionalized acrylic copolymer and new aliphatic bismaleimides, to obtain transparent thermo-reversible crosslinked materials with excellent thermally-induced healing capabilities. Thin films of DA polymers embedding a perylene-based fluorophore at increasing concentrations were deposited on glass substrates and their optical and functional properties as LSC systems were investigated. Furthermore, the optical and electrical efficiency of such smart LSC devices was assessed under simulated sunlight and found to be comparable to that obtained in reference systems based on poly(methyl methacrylate). To test the self-healing ability of the new DA-based LSCs, surface damages were mechanically induced on the doped waveguide, leading to a sharp decrease in device efficiency. After a suitable thermal treatment, full recovery of the surface damage and of device efficiency was observed thanks to the DA functionality. This work provides the first demonstration of self-healing and highly transparent polymeric host matrices for LSCs and paves the way to the development of multifunctional thermo-responsive smart LSC systems with high efficiency and improved durability.

Thermo-reversible polymer matrices for stimuli-responsive luminescent solar concentrators

S. Turri;G. Griffini
2019-01-01

Abstract

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have been regarded as a promising solar energy technology for reducing architectural barriers to the integration of photovoltaic systems into the built environment. One major issue currently debated in the LSC field is the long-term durability of devices. In this respect, physical damages occurring to the surface of the LSC waveguide during its outdoor service-life (weathering phenomena, dust, solid particles) lead to a decay in the performance over long-term operation. Therefore, strategies to recover such surface damages are to be sought to ensure prolonged device lifetime and sustained efficiency. Within this framework, a novel smart LSC system based on a stimuli-responsive polymer with thermo-reversible crosslinking behaviour was developed in this work. This was achieved by exploiting a dynamic-chemistry approach based on the Diels-Alder (DA) reaction between a new furan-functionalized acrylic copolymer and new aliphatic bismaleimides, to obtain transparent thermo-reversible crosslinked materials with excellent thermally-induced healing capabilities. Thin films of DA polymers embedding a perylene-based fluorophore at increasing concentrations were deposited on glass substrates and their optical and functional properties as LSC systems were investigated. Furthermore, the optical and electrical efficiency of such smart LSC devices was assessed under simulated sunlight and found to be comparable to that obtained in reference systems based on poly(methyl methacrylate). To test the self-healing ability of the new DA-based LSCs, surface damages were mechanically induced on the doped waveguide, leading to a sharp decrease in device efficiency. After a suitable thermal treatment, full recovery of the surface damage and of device efficiency was observed thanks to the DA functionality. This work provides the first demonstration of self-healing and highly transparent polymeric host matrices for LSCs and paves the way to the development of multifunctional thermo-responsive smart LSC systems with high efficiency and improved durability.
2019
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1126200
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