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Rice engineers develop polymer cores that redirect light from any source to solar cells
Rice University engineers have suggested a colorful solution to next-generation energy collection: Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) in your windows.
Led by Rafael Verduzco and postdoctoral researcher and lead author Yilin Li of Rice’s Brown School of Engineering, the team designed and built foot-square “windows” that sandwich a conjugated polymer between two clear acrylic panels.
That thin middle layer is the secret sauce. It’s 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.
Written by AZoBuildFeb 17 2021
Engineers from Rice University have proposed a colorful solution to futuristic energy collection adding luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) to windows in buildings.
Rice University engineers designed and built windowpanes that redirect sunlight or illumination from indoors to edge-band solar cells. The central layer is a conjugated polymer that serves as a waveguide. Image Credit: Yilin Li.
The team of researchers headed by Rafael Verduzco and postdoctoral researcher and lead author Yilin Li from Rice’s Brown School of Engineering engineered and developed foot square windows in which a conjugated polymer is interspersed between two clear acrylic panels.