Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2022-2023).

The green gas reduction strategies put forward by many countries all over the world recently led to thex000D
signatures of major treaties, such as the Paris agreement. Basically, these agreements focus on the two mainx000D
vectors that may drastically lead to a decrease in CO2 production. On one hand, much efforts are directed tox000D
minimizing energy consumption while, on the other hand, more environmentally friendly energy productionx000D
facilities are developed. It is in this context that Saint-Gobain Canada Inc. developed a polymer thin film to bex000D
applied on the surface of house and building windows. Essentially, this technology takes advantage ofx000D
polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which highly absorbs UV light. Once installed on windows, this polymerx000D
film captures heat and directs it back into the room, thus improving overall comfort during cooler months,x000D
while lowering energy use and helping to save energy. In warmer months, it reflects solar heat away fromx000D
windows, reducing the need and cost for interior cooling. However, as most polymers, PET is not particularly ax000D
good candidate when comes the time to make laminates out of it or to print inks of all kinds on it, because of itsx000D
low surface energy. Saint-Gobain also seeks to develop materials that will enable buildind-up efficientx000D
photovoltaic devices to maximize the yield of solar energy conversion.The strategy will take advantage of thex000D
low absorptivity of fluorinated polymers throughout the whole UV and visible spectral range. Once applied onx000D
top of photovoltaic devices, thin films made of fluorinated polymers enable to protect the silicon-based devicesx000D
against environmental conditions while minimizing the light energy loss through the polymer films. This limitsx000D
the loss of solar energy production caused by the necessary device protection. Unfortunately, the use ofx000D
fluorinated polymers for the targeted application is limited by their poor adhesiveness when comes the time tox000D
glue them to any devices. Accordingly, the objective of this project will be to characterize an industrial plasmax000D
process to modify the surface of PET and fluoropolymers, therefore enabling assembling them with any otherx000D
materials.