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

近年来，世界各国纷纷提出绿色气体减排战略，签署了《巴黎协定》等重大条约。基本上，这些协议关注的是可能导致二氧化碳产量大幅减少的两个主要因素。一方面，大量的努力致力于使能源消耗最小化，另一方面，开发了更环保的能源生产设施。正是在这种情况下，圣戈班加拿大公司开发了一种聚合物薄膜，用于房屋和建筑窗户的表面。本质上，这项技术利用了聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)，它对紫外线有很强的吸收作用。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，从而在较凉爽的月份改善整体舒适性，同时降低能源消耗并帮助节省能源。在较温暖的月份，它将太阳热反射到窗户之外，降低了室内冷却的需求和成本。然而，与大多数聚合物一样，由于PET的表面能很低，因此在制造层压板或在其上印刷各种油墨时，它并不是特别好的候选者。圣戈班还寻求开发能够使积聚效率的光伏设备最大限度地提高太阳能转换效率的材料。该战略将利用氟化聚合物在整个紫外线和可见光光谱范围内的低吸收率。一旦应用在光伏设备的顶部，由氟化聚合物制成的薄膜能够保护硅基设备免受环境条件的影响，同时将通过聚合物薄膜的光能损失降至最低。这限制了由必要的设备保护造成的太阳能生产的损失。不幸的是，当需要将含氟聚合物粘合到任何设备上时，它们的粘附性很差，这限制了目标应用的使用。因此，该项目的目标将是描述一种工业等离子体过程，以修饰PET和氟聚合物的表面，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.