Microporous Polymers as Light Absorbers for Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) hold the promise to make solar electricity more affordable by reducing the need for expensive photovoltaic cells and enabling less conventional forms of photovoltaics such as solar windows or roofs, and other architectural elements. Here we demonstrate the use of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) as an efficient light absorber in an LSC, combined with a red-emitting dye. The prepared prototype LSC displays a good photoluminescence quantum yield (65.3 %) and performance metrics that show promise for the use of microporous polymers as light harvesters. This work significantly broadens the potential applications of PIMs beyond their traditional functions in molecular separations and other adsorption-based processes.