Organic luminescent down-shifting liquid beam splitters for hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) applications

Hybridised photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) systems, obtained by merging photo-voltaic (PV) and photo-thermal (PT) technologies, can lead to enhanced conversion efficiencies. Liquid spectral beam splitters (SBSs) offer control of the ‘thermal’ and ‘electrical’ components of the solar spectrum. Combining PVT systems with liquid SBSs facilitates enhanced control of the thermal and electrical outputs, further improving the PVT systems efficiency and making them economically viable. Traditionally, liquid SBSs contain nanostructures suspended in a base-fluid to capitalise on the enhanced heat transfer capabilities offered by the nanostructures' surface morphology. These nanofluids have certain disadvantages, such as stability problems, environmental hazards and synthetic cost concerns, which preclude them from becoming a viable substitute for commercial (single-phase) fluids. This study offers an alternative strategy by employing a set of newly developed fluids containing organic and organometallic imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline derivatives for SBS-PVT systems. These new working fluids were designed to mimic the behaviour of luminescent down-shifting (LDS) molecules while offering enhanced thermophysical characteristics over the host base-fluid. Their optical, fluorescent and thermophysical properties enabled an increased heating rate within the working fluid. Their integration as working fluids in an SBS-PVT system lead to optical efficiencies of ~63% i.e. an 18%–20% improvement over the standalone PV technology. The fluid properties displayed a 61% increase in the economic value of the energy captured when compared to the host base-fluid alone for the same PVT system. Consequently, these novel fluids and the organic molecules they contain can be effectively designed as high performance spectrally selective fluids for PVT applications. [Display omitted] •The properties of new organic-based fluids were studied for PVT applications.•The fluids demonstrate favorable thermal, optical and fluorescent characteristics.•The fluids can exhibit selective spectral absorbance for hybrid PVT collectors.•When used as LDS optical layers the fluids minimize the losses in PVT systems.•An increased optical collection efficiency and economic value was obtained.