Novel photoluminescent compounds for optoelectronic applications

Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs) are semi-transparent devices constituted by a sheet of glass or polymeric material with a high refractive index, doped with a luminophore able to absorb incident light and re-emit it at longer wavelengths. Thanks to their peculiar working principle, they have emerged as a unique light management technology, with applications spanning various fields, from photovoltaic to indoor lighting, photochemistry, and optical communication. Here, we present a library of novel fluorescent compounds with either a symmetric or non-symmetric conjugated donor-acceptor structure, designed based on DFT computational investigations. Direct arylation reactions have been widely used and optimized as key C-C bond-forming steps, in order to simplify the synthetic pathways. Their performances were screened in thin-film LSCs of poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) as host matrix, reaching a remarkably external photon efficiency (ηext) of up to 8.4, which resulted in a device efficiency of 0.94% once the LSC was coupled with a Si-PV cell. Finally, selected luminophores were tested as optical antennas for Optical Wireless Communications (OWC), showing promising properties for high-speed Visible Light Communication (VLC).