Stable and eco-friendly Ag–In–S/Zn–S quantum dots for an efficient and optically transparent luminescent solar concentrator-organic photovoltaic system

Quantum dot (QD) based luminescent solar concentrator-organic photovoltaic (LSC-OPV) systems demonstrate significant potential in applications including building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). In this study, eco-friendly Ag–In–S/Zn–S QDs with a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY = 73 %) are synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method. The influence of Zn-S precursor reactivity on QD properties is studied. The synthesized QDs exhibit excellent stability over a wide temperature range (90–360 K). The Ag–In–S/Zn–S LSCs maintain over 90 % of their initial PLQY after a two-month exposure to natural sunlight. Additionally, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the fabricated LSC-OPV system reaches 1.00 % under near-actual condition (9 mW cm −2 ). Moreover, when the irradiation intensity is further decreased to 0.4 mW cm −2 , the LSC-OPV system shows a PCE as high as 5.27 %, demonstrating that the LSC-OPV system can operate efficiently at low illumination intensities. Notably, the fabricated LSCs have minimal impact on the incident sunlight spectrum, making them suitable for BIPV applications. Thus, this study is a first that is known to report the integration of eco-friendly QD-based LSCs with organic photovoltaic cells, which positively contributes to the advancement of BIPV.