Theoretic Guide for Using Photonic Glasses as Colored Covers for Solar Energy Harvesting

Abstract

The increasing demand for renewable energy is promoting technologies that integrate solar energy harvesting materials with the human living environment, such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs). This places requirements on developing colored covers with a trade-off between efficiency and aesthetics, providing a new stage for the large-scale application of structural color technologies. Here in this study, we have investigated the theoretic feasibility of employing the photonic glass, a random packing of monodisperse dielectric microspheres, as the colored cover for solar energy harvesting. Based on numerous optical simulations, we have evaluated the color and average solar transmissivity (AST) of the photonic glasses with varying parameters. Results show that using non-absorbing microspheres with relatively high refractive index, about 3 μm thick photonic glasses could enable colors with lightness over 50 while keeping AST at around 80%. Besides, we demonstrate that due to the short-range structural correlation, photonic glasses could generate purple, blue, cyan, light green, and grey colors, but cannot help with yellow and red color hues. Finally, the effects of several enhancement methods are clarified, and possible ways for expanding the color range are demonstrated. These results provide a comprehensive guide to the practical implementations of structural color using photonic glasses, particularly in the colorization of solar energy materials.