Improvement of surface energy of solar cell backsheet using dielectric barrier discharge treatment

Improving the surface energy of backsheet materials can lead to better encapsulation of the solar panel, which is of important significance for the production of high-performance and long-life solar panel. Consequently, the surface of backsheet was modified using non-thermal plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure air. The changes of hydrophilicity and surface energy of untreated and DBD plasma treated samples were studied by means of contact angle measurement, and the changes of physical structure and chemical composition on the surface were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), moreover, the aging effect and the influence of power density on the surface modification were studied. Results show that, after the DBD treatment, the surface energy and hydrophilicity are increased greatly, and both of them reach a saturation value as the treatment time increases to a certain value. The results of SEM observations show that surface roughness is increased after DBD treatment, and the results of FTIR reveal that oxygen-containing polar groups are introduced onto the material surfaces. Aging effect occurs when the treated materials are exposed in air, but the value of water contact angle is still much lower than that of the untreated materials even after six days storage. By increasing the power density of DBD treatment, less treatment time is needed to obtain the same treatment effects.