Luminescent Greenhouse Coating: Investigating the potential of luminescent materials in greenhouse applications

This research aims to investigate the potential of utilizing particle-based luminescent coatings for light management in greenhouses. Light management includes solar spectral conversion, transmittance, and scattering. Phosphor materials perform energy conversion from high-energy radiation to low-energy radiation through photoluminescent mechanisms. These phosphor materials are applied in the form of a sprayable coating intended to be employed on greenhouse roofing. Through energy conversion, a luminescent phosphor coating can achieve spectral conversion, adding light for crop growth, and will at the same time affect both light transmittance and scattering in greenhouse roofing. The application of phosphors as luminescent coatings on greenhouse roofing is a young research topic with very few published results; therefore, it presents several research challenges. The first is the lack of practical work on luminescent greenhouse coatings, demonstrating what type of spectral conversion is beneficial to plants and even the general feasibility of phosphors for greenhouse applications. The second challenge is to define clear and standardized measurable quantities that determine the success of a greenhouse coating, for example, the coating’s UV-to-PAR conversion efficiency. The third challenge is to design and build a measuring system that can characterize these quantities, especially the hemispherical light transmittance of small-scale luminescent coating samples…