There is a world-wide need for electricity produced directly by the sun at an economical cost. During the decade of the 1970's and early 1980's, there was significant effort to develop semi- conducting devices or cells which, when exposed to sunlight, would produce electricity. These devices were not cost effective, especially when the price of oil fell by more than a factor of two in 1984. In an effort to increase the cost effectiveness of solar cells, a parallel effort was made to devise solar radiation concentrators. In this regard, the luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) was developed for the purpose of photovoltaic or photo-chemical energy conversion. This development work also stopped around 1984 due to unsolved difficulties of photochemical stability of the LSC. It was found that laser dyes from the Coumarin, Rhodamine, and Oxazine families have 50 percent probability of photodegradation after use in a LSC for a period less than one year. In the last three years, radiation resistant plastic scintillation detectors have been developed to operate in the high radiation environment of the new colliding beam machines such as the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in the USA and Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider in Europe. These detectors operate using the same physical principles as the LSC. A one-hundred-fold reduction in photodegradation of plastic scintillators has been achieved utilizing new combinations of plastics, dyes, and their environment, compared to previous combinations. The development work was done using one million volt Cobalt X-rays which could result in excitation of plastic and dyes to all possible states, whereas solar radiation would give an excitation distribution to a reduced set of states. It is, therefore, not clear how to translate the improvement factor of one hundred in photostability to the case of a LSC. Phase I of this SBIR Award is to conduct experimental measurements of degradation rates for the new radiation stable luminescent plastics in simulated and actual solar exposures. These measurements will elucidate the technical feasibility of this new approach to photovoltaic or photo-chemical energy conversion. ____________________________ ____________ Program Director's Signature Date//

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
8860057
Program Officer
Ritchie B. Coryell
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
1989-01-01
Budget End
1989-09-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
1988
Total Cost
$50,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Nanoptics Inc
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Gainesville
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32609