Transparent nanocomposite films were spin-coated from sulfonic acid modified polycarbonate and fluorescent dye 3-(benzothiazol-2-yl)-7-(diethylamino)-2-oxo-2H-1-benzopyran-4-carbonitrile) and doped with different concentrations of ZrO2 nanoparticles to form fluorescent PC/ZrO2 nanocomposite films. The refractive index of the investigated nanocomposite films was increased by increasing the amount of ZrO2 NPs. It was also found that, adding zirconia nanoparticles controlled the orientation of dye molecules in PC host leading to enhanced fluorescence anisotropy. The trapping efficiency was calculated as a function of dipole orientation for all concentrations of ZrO2 NPs and reached 96.5% for vertically aligned dye molecules and 90.6% for horizontally aligned. These results indicated that aligning the transition dipoles of dye molecules is promising for the enhancement of the edge emission of luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) waveguides. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.