Limitations and design considerations for donor–acceptor systems in luminescent solar concentrators: the effect of coupling-induced red-edge absorption

Abstract

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) use luminescence and waveguiding to concentrate photons within thin dielectric slabs for use in photovoltaic, lighting, and photobioreactor applications. Donor-acceptor systems of organic chromophores are widely used in LSCs to broaden the sunlight absorption range and attempt to reduce loss-inducing reabsorption by the emitting chromophore. We use raytrace simulations across a large parameter space to model the performance of LSCs containing two novel donor-acceptor trimers based on the perylene moiety. We find that under certain conditions, trimers outperform single-dye LSCs as expected. However, at higher concentrations, a slight increase in red-edge absorption by the trimers increases reabsorption and has a deleterious effect on LSC performance. This underscores the large effect that even small changes in the red edge can have, and may discourage the use of donor-acceptor schemes with high interchromophore coupling that promotes red-edge absorption. Finally, we show that for a LSC-PV pair, selecting a PV cell that is well-matched with the LSC emission spectrum has a large effect on the flux gain of the system, and that the systems studied here are well-matched to emerging PV technologies.