Sustainable solvent platform for photon upconversion increases solar utilization efficiency

The conversion of solar energy into electricity is currently restricted by a concept known as the Shockley-Quesser limit. This limitation allows only photons that have higher energies than those of the bandgap to be used, while those with lower energies are wasted. In an effort to obtain a solution to this problem and make solar energy conversion more efficient, researchers have developed a process of converting photons with lower energies into ones with higher energies, called photon upconversion.