Photochemical upconversion of light for renewable energy and more

Photochemical upconversion has been put forward as a candidate technology to improve the light-harvesting capabilities of thin-film photovoltaic cells, by harvesting transmitted sub-bandgap light and re-radiating the absorbed energy at a usable wavelength. Efficiencies of 10% have been observed under solar-level irradiation, and up to 86% (quantum yield of 43%) has been observed under strong irradiance. In this proceeding, we explain the triplet-triplet annihilation mechanism underlying photochemical upconversion and delve into the chemical kinetics to extract strategies to improve device performance. We suggest that one of these strategies, concentrating the sensitizer species, may be flawed without proper consideration of the sensitizer identity, due to enhanced emitter triplet decay caused by the external heavy atom effect.