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Tandem luminescent solar concentrators based on engineered quantum dots

Nature Photonics volume 12, pages 105–110 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can serve as large-area sunlight collectors for terrestrial and space-based photovoltaics. Due to their high emission efficiencies and readily tunable emission and absorption spectra, colloidal quantum dots have emerged as a new and promising type of LSC fluorophore. Spectral tunability of the quantum dots also facilitates the realization of stacked multilayered LSCs, where enhanced performance is obtained through spectral splitting of incident sunlight, as in multijunction photovoltaics. Here, we demonstrate a large-area (>230 cm2) tandem LSC based on two types of nearly reabsorption-free quantum dots spectrally tuned for optimal solar-spectrum splitting. This prototype device exhibits a high optical quantum efficiency of 6.4% for sunlight illumination and solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiency of 3.1%. The efficiency gains due to the tandem architecture over single-layer devices quickly increase with increasing LSC size and can reach more than 100% in structures with window sizes of more than 2,500 cm2.

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Fig. 1: Concept of solar-spectrum splitting in a tandem LSC.
Fig. 2: Characterization of the bottom tandem-LSC layer based on CuInSe2/ZnS (CISe/ZnS) QDs.
Fig. 3: Characterization of the top tandem-LSC layer based on Mn2+-doped Cd x Zn1−x S/ZnS (CdZnS/ZnS) QDs.
Fig. 4: A tandem LSC made of the Mn2+:CdZnS-QD top layer and the CISe-QD bottom layer.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Centre for Advanced Solar Photophysics (CASP), an Energy Frontier Research Centre funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. K.W. is a CASP member supported by a LANL Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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Author notes

  1. Kaifeng Wu

    Present address: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, China

  2. Kaifeng Wu and Hongbo Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Advanced Solar Photophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA

    Kaifeng Wu, Hongbo Li & Victor I. Klimov

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    Hongbo Li

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  1. Kaifeng Wu
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Contributions

K.W. and V.I.K. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. H.L. synthesized CuInSe2/ZnS quantum dots. K.W. synthesized Mn2+-doped CdZnS/ZnS quantum dots. H.L. performed microstructural characterizations and stability measurements of the quantum dots. K.W. fabricated and measured the LSC devices and analysed the data. K.W. and V.I.K. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Victor I. Klimov.

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Supplementary Notes 1–5; Supplementary Figures 1–17; Supplementary Tables 1–7; Supplementary References 1–19.

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Wu, K., Li, H. & Klimov, V.I. Tandem luminescent solar concentrators based on engineered quantum dots. Nature Photon 12, 105–110 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-017-0070-7

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