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

最近，世界上许多国家提出的绿色气体减排战略导致了一些重要条约的签署，比如《巴黎协定》。基本上，这些协议的重点是两个可能大幅减少二氧化碳排放量的主要途径。一方面，人们正在努力把能源消耗降到最低，而另一方面，人们正在开发更加环保的能源生产设备。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窗户表面的聚合物薄膜。从本质上讲，这项技术利用了高度吸收紫外线的聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）。一旦安装在窗户上，这种聚合物薄膜就会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，同时降低能源消耗并有助于节约能源。在温暖的月份，它将太阳热量从窗户反射出去，减少了室内冷却的需求和成本。然而，就像大多数聚合物一样，由于PET表面能慢，当需要用它制造层压板或在其上印刷各种油墨时，它并不是特别好的选择。圣戈班还寻求开发材料，使高效的光伏设备能够最大限度地提高太阳能转换的产量。该策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。这就限制了太阳能生产所造成的损失，必要的设备保护。不幸的是，当将氟化聚合物粘合到任何设备上时，它们的粘附性很差，因此在目标应用中使用氟化聚合物受到限制。因此，该项目的目标将是描述一种工业等离子体工艺，以修饰PET和含氟聚合物的表面，从而使它们能够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.