Copper Indium Disulfide Nanocrystal Luminescent Solar Concentrators

The sun is the most prominent renewable energy resource. Technologies such as photovoltaics (PVs) have yet to emerge as a cost effective alternative to non-renewable energy resources such as fossil fuels. Luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) possess the ability to lower the cost of solar energy by the reduction of the photovoltaic cell area and yet increase photovoltaic conversion efficiency. LSC's offer an attractive approach to concentrating both specular and diffuse light, which eliminates expensive solar tracking methods. Luminophores for LSC applications are often dominated by reabsorption losses and absorb a small part of the solar spectrum, which prevents LSC's from being a competitor in today's energy market. This thesis introduces a new class of luminophore for use in LSCs based on Copper Indium Disulfide (CIS). CIS has a broad absorption spectrum from the Ultraviolet to near-infrared with a tunable emission output, high photoluminescent quantum yield, and large effective stokes shift making them the current best LSC luminophore.