Characterization of an industrial plasma process to treat fluoropolymers and polyethylene terephthalate for the solar energy industry

近年来，世界各国纷纷提出了绿色减排战略，并签署了巴黎协定等重要条约。基本上，这些协议侧重于可能大幅减少二氧化碳产量的两个主要载体。一方面，许多努力是针对最小化能源消耗，而另一方面，更环保的能源生产设施的发展。正是在这种背景下，圣戈班加拿大公司。开发了一种应用于房屋和建筑物窗户表面的聚合物薄膜。从本质上讲，这项技术利用了聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET），它高度吸收紫外线。一旦安装在窗户上，这种聚合物薄膜就可以捕获热量并将其引导回房间，从而在寒冷的月份提高整体舒适度，同时降低能源使用并帮助节省能源。在温暖的月份，它将太阳能从窗户反射出去，减少了室内冷却的需求和成本。然而，与大多数聚合物一样，PET并不是特别好的候选人，因为它的表面能很低，所以当用它来制造层压板或在上面印刷各种油墨时。圣戈班还致力于开发能够构建高效光伏器件的材料，以最大限度地提高太阳能转换的产量。该战略将利用氟化聚合物在整个紫外和可见光谱范围内的低吸收率。一旦应用在光伏器件上，由氟化聚合物制成的薄膜能够保护硅基器件免受环境条件的影响，同时最大限度地减少通过聚合物薄膜的光能损失。这限制了由必要的设备保护引起的太阳能生产的损失。不幸的是，氟化聚合物在目标应用中的使用受到它们在将它们粘合到任何设备上时的不良粘合性的限制。因此，本项目的目标将是表征工业等离子体工艺，以改性PET和含氟聚合物的表面，从而使其与任何其他材料组装。

The green gas reduction strategies put forward by many countries all over the world recently led to thesignatures of major treaties, such as the Paris agreement. Basically, these agreements focus on the two mainvectors that may drastically lead to a decrease in CO2 production. On one hand, much efforts are directed tominimizing energy consumption while, on the other hand, more environmentally friendly energy productionfacilities are developed. It is in this context that Saint-Gobain Canada Inc. developed a polymer thin film to beapplied on the surface of house and building windows. Essentially, this technology takes advantage ofpolyethylene terephthalate (PET), which highly absorbs UV light. Once installed on windows, this polymerfilm captures heat and directs it back into the room, thus improving overall comfort during cooler months,while lowering energy use and helping to save energy. In warmer months, it reflects solar heat away fromwindows, reducing the need and cost for interior cooling. However, as most polymers, PET is not particularly agood candidate when comes the time to make laminates out of it or to print inks of all kinds on it, because of itslow surface energy. Saint-Gobain also seeks to develop materials that will enable buildind-up efficientphotovoltaic devices to maximize the yield of solar energy conversion.The strategy will take advantage of thelow absorptivity of fluorinated polymers throughout the whole UV and visible spectral range. Once applied ontop of photovoltaic devices, thin films made of fluorinated polymers enable to protect the silicon-based devicesagainst environmental conditions while minimizing the light energy loss through the polymer films. This limitsthe loss of solar energy production caused by the necessary device protection. Unfortunately, the use offluorinated polymers for the targeted application is limited by their poor adhesiveness when comes the time toglue them to any devices. Accordingly, the objective of this project will be to characterize an industrial plasmaprocess to modify the surface of PET and fluoropolymers, therefore enabling assembling them with any othermaterials.