{"id":68407,"date":"2021-02-18T02:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T01:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=68407"},"modified":"2021-02-17T18:17:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T17:17:13","slug":"luminescent-windows-generate-energy-from-inside-and-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/science\/luminescent-windows-generate-energy-from-inside-and-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Luminescent windows generate energy from inside and out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rice engineers develop polymer cores that redirect light from any source to solar cells<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rice University engineers have suggested a colorful solution to next-generation energy collection: Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) in your windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Led by Rafael Verduzco<\/a> and postdoctoral researcher and lead author Yilin Li<\/a> of Rice\u2019s Brown School of Engineering<\/a>, the team designed and built foot-square \u201cwindows\u201d that sandwich a conjugated polymer<\/a> between two clear acrylic panels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That thin middle layer is the secret sauce. It\u2019s designed to absorb light in a specific wavelength and guide it to panel edges lined with solar cells. Conjugated polymers are chemical compounds that can be tuned with specific chemical or physical properties for a variety of applications, like conductive films or sensors for biomedical devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rice lab\u2019s polymer compound is called PNV (for poly[naphthalene-alt-vinylene]) and absorbs and emits red light, but adjusting the molecular ingredients should make it able to absorb light in a variety of colors. The trick is that, as a waveguide<\/a>, it accepts light from any direction but restricts how it leaves, concentrating it onto the solar cells that convert it to electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe motivation for this research is to solve energy issues for buildings through integrated photovoltaics,\u201d said Li, who began the project as part of a \u201csmart glass\u201d competition. \u201cRight now, solar rooftops are the mainstream solution, but you need to orient them toward the sun to maximize their efficiency, and their appearance isn\u2019t very pleasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought, why can\u2019t we make colorful, transparent or translucent solar collectors and apply them to the outside of buildings?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study appears in the journal Polymer International<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, the amount of juice generated by the Rice team\u2019s test units is far less than that collected by even average commercial solar cells, which routinely convert about 20% of sunlight into electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But LSC windows never stop working. They happily recycle light from inside the building into electricity when the sun goes down. In fact, tests showed they were more efficient at converting ambient light from LEDs than they were from direct sunlight, even though the sunlight was 100 times stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven indoors, if you hold up a panel, you can see very strong photoluminescence on the edge,\u201d Li said, demonstrating. The panels he tested showed a power conversion efficiency<\/a> of up to 2.9% in direct sunlight and 3.6% under ambient LED light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various types of luminophores<\/a> have been developed over the last decade, but rarely with conjugated polymers, according to Verduzco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 RICE UNIVERSITY \/ Courtesy of Yilin Li | A concept for a house using windowpanes designed by Rice University engineers to redirect light from inside and out to edge-band solar cells.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of the problem with using conjugated polymers for this application is that they can be unstable and degrade quickly,\u201d said Verduzco, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of materials science and nanoengineering. \u201cBut we\u2019ve learned a lot about improving the stability of conjugated polymers in recent years, and in the future, we can engineer the polymers for both stability and desired optical properties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lab also simulated the return of energy from panels as large as 120 inches square. They reported these panels would provide somewhat less energy, but it would still contribute to a household\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Li noted the polymer might also be tuned to convert energy from infrared and ultraviolet light, allowing those panels to remain transparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe polymers can even be printed in patterns in the panels, so they can be turned into artwork,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-authors are University of Washington alumnus Yujian Sun; Yongcao Zhang, a graduate assistant at the University of Houston, and Yuxin Li, a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solera City Energy supported the research.<\/p>\n\n\n

Source<\/h5>\r\n\n\n\n

RICE UNIVERSITY \/ Mike Williams 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

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