Singlet Fission Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Abstract

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) present a promising avenue for solar energy harvesting, utilizing transparent matrices embedded with light-absorbing chromophores to concentrate incident solar radiation. Photon-multiplier luminescent solar concentrators (PM-LSCs) contain chromophores boasting over 100% photoluminescence quantum efficiency. Although PM-LSCs may bypass free energy losses observed in traditional LSC systems, experimental PM-LSCs have exhibited optical efficiency sensitivity to photon flux. Here, we demonstrate a PM-LSC utilizing singlet fission (SF), an exciton multiplication process. We apply large-area films of absorbing TIPS-tetracene mixed with tetracene-carboxylic acid-ligated PbS quantum dots and demonstrate they are suitable for solid-state LSC devices. We find that although SF-LSCs present pathways to mitigate fluence limitations observed in quantum cutting systems, challenges persist due to triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA) at higher photon fluxes. The potential of SF-LSCs to overcome fluence limitations in PM-LSCs suggests a promising avenue for future development.