Materials Challenges in Alternative & Renewable Energy 2016

Clearwater, Florida (USA), April 17-21, 2016

S2: Spectral Conversion Materials for Energy Applications

This symposium will bring together different yet complimentary approaches for development and application of spectral conversion materials for the energy sector. Topics will focus on spectral conversion materials, with emphasis on materials design, characterization, hybrid structures, mechanisms, device fabrication, and innovative approaches and applications.

Proposed Session Topics:

Upconversion, downconversion, and luminescent downshifting for solar cells
Lanthanides, dyes, and quantum dots for photovoltaic applications
Spectral conversion for photocatalytic and water-splitting applications
Triplet–triplet annihilation photon-upconversion
Plasmonic and photonic manipulation of conversion processes
Novel upconversion and downconversion materials—including sustainable and green synthesis approaches—such as nano-particles, macro- and micro-sized structures, composites, and antenna for NIR harvesting
Application-oriented approaches in spectral conversion

 

 Invited Talk, Tuesday 19th April 9:50 a.m (Hilton Clearwater Beach)

"Turning the sun into blue: enhancing photocatalytic activity by high effective NIR to UV-blue up-conversion with rare-earth doped materials"

J. Méndez-Ramos *, L. Wondraczek, N.M. Khaidukov, P. Acosta-Mora, J.C. Ruiz-Morales, M.E. Borges, M. Sierra and P. Esparza

Here we explore the ground-breaking photonic approach for enhancing photocatalytic activity through solar energy harvesting, which bases on up-conversion luminescence processes in rare-earth (RE) doped materials in order to satisfy large band-gap requirements of main water-splitting semiconductor electrodes by transforming unused long-wavelength solar radiation into useful UV-blue light, aimed at increasing the efficiency in solar-driven H2 generation, solar fuels, CO2 storage and fine chemicals production.

Thus we have synthesized and comparatively studied a series of RE-doped luminescent materials including: fluoride ZBLAN glasses, nano-glass-ceramics, nano-particles, hydrothermal KYF4 and K2YF5 crystals and novel organic resins, for an endless range of technological applications in coatings targeted to module-scale solar-chemical energy harvesting devices. Our approach focuses on optimizing the incident radiation, turning sunlight into blue. Up-conversion wavelength SHIFT happens, there is plenty of energy at the bottom. We envisage a semi-industrial exploitation for sustainable H2 production by means of solar seawater splitting within the existing traditional solar salt flats, as a system of shallow seawater pools operating like slurry-type photo-reactors, available in Canary Islands, ideal host territory for a renewal energy community.