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A Leaf‐Inspired Luminescent Solar Concentrator for Energy‐Efficient Continuous‐Flow Photochemistry
Author(s) -
Cambié Dario,
Zhao Fang,
Hessel Volker,
Debije Michael G.,
Noël Timothy
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201611101
Subject(s) - sunlight , solar energy , photochemistry , luminescence , fluorescence , materials science , optoelectronics , concentrator , polydimethylsiloxane , irradiation , light energy , wavelength , chemistry , nanotechnology , optics , physics , ecology , biology , nuclear physics
The use of solar light to promote chemical reactions holds significant potential with regard to sustainable energy solutions. While the number of visible light‐induced transformations has increased significantly, the use of abundant solar light has been extremely limited. We report a leaf‐inspired photomicroreactor that constitutes a merger between luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) and flow photochemistry to enable green and efficient reactions powered by solar irradiation. This device based on fluorescent dye‐doped polydimethylsiloxane collects sunlight, focuses the energy to a narrow wavelength region, and then transports that energy to embedded microchannels where the flowing reactants are converted.