Síntese de nanocristais dopados com lantanídeos para a utilização em células solares para a conversão ascendente de fótons

Abstract

Solar energy emerges as a potential energy that could replace fossil fuels, as it is a renewable, clean and abundant, especially in tropical regions. Devices are studied to promote the capture of solar rays that affect the Earth for use in houses and industries in the form of electrical energy. However, part of this energy is lost due to the fact that the capture only occurs in the visible spectrum region. The use of inorganic matrices, with a defined structure, doped with lanthanides appears as an alternative to convert the energy of the non-visible region and emit them in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, through the process of upward conversion. In this work, the inorganic matrix calcium fluoride was chosen to be co-doped with the lanthanides ytterbium and erbium through the hydrothermal route. The characterizations of the synthesized calcium fluoride nanocrystals were conducted by spectroscopic methods in the infrared region and in the ultraviolet and visible region, and the structure of the material was evaluated using the X-ray diffraction technique. The obtained results indicate that the hydrothermal synthesis of calcium fluoride co-doped with lanthanides was successful, where there was conservation of the cubic structure of calcium fluoride and confirm the adhesion of ytterbium and erbium ions to the structure of the inorganic matrix, indicating that the calcium fluoride nanocrystals co-doped with lanthanides have potential upconversion effect.