High-performance luminescent solar concentrators based on the core/shell CdSe/ZnS quantum dots composed into thiol-ene polymer

Due to the structure-engineered large Stokes shift, the core/shell quantum dots (QDs) have attracted widespread attention for the application of luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). Here, a high collection efficiency LSCs is fabricated and demonstrated by embedding the core/shell CdSe/ZnS QDs into the off-stoichiometric thiol-ene (OSTE) polymers for the first time. It is found that the LSCs devices based on the core/shell CdSe/ZnS QDs can reach their optimal full-spectrum external quantum efficiency of 2.3%. After coupling the commercial Si solar cells, the LSCs device shows excellent performance with an optical efficiency of up to 3.2% when the core/shell CdSe/ZnS QDs doping concentration is 7.2 × 10−3 mg/mL. The optimal power conversion efficiency of core/shell CdSe/ZnS QDs based LSC is 0.62% under the standard AM 1.5 solar simulator. These results indicate that the proposed OSTE matrix with the core/shell CdSe/ZnS QDs may have potential prospects in LSCs application.