| Abstract: | The influence of the chemical structure, composition, and physical properties of polymers polyacrylates and -methacrylates, poly(vinyl acetate), polystyrene, and polybutadiene] and plasticized polymers poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene] on the Stokes shift of fluorescent dyes has been investigated. The results indicate that the structure and overall mobility of the polymer matrix as well as the nature of the dopant all together influence the separation of the absorption and emission band of a given fluorescent dye. In general, polar and highly flexible polymers favor the band separation. The effect of both polar and apolar dopants seems to be primarily a plasticization in case of polar polymers, whereas for apolar polymers the plasticizer effect can be neglected and the increased Stokes shift upon addition of polar dopants has to be attributed to particular dopant/dye interactions. These findings open some new routes to improve the efficiency of solar collectors based on fluorescent dyes. |
