Luminescent Solar Concentrator for Energy Conversion
{'Code': '15030000', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'TIP', 'LongName': 'Dir for Tech, Innovation, & Partnerships'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'TI', 'LongName': 'Translational Impacts'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Ritchie B. Coryell', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
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//
{'FirstName': 'Julie', 'LastName': 'Harmon', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'P', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Julie P Harmon', 'EmailAddress': 'harmon@cas.usf.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000221378', 'StartDate': '01/01/1989', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Nanoptics Inc', 'CityName': 'GAINESVILLE', 'ZipCode': '326093307', 'PhoneNumber': '3523786620', 'StreetAddress': '3014 NE 21ST WAY', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Florida', 'StateCode': 'FL', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '03', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'FL03', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'TSLRN7AHRX75', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'NANOPTICS, INC.', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': 'TSLRN7AHRX75'}
{'Name': None, 'CityName': None, 'StateCode': None, 'ZipCode': None, 'StreetAddress': None, 'CountryCode': None, 'CountryName': None, 'StateName': None, 'CountryFlag': None, 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': None, 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_PERF': '""'}
{'Code': '5371', 'Text': 'SBIR Phase I'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8860057.xml'}