Most of the coating materials and polymers that can heal surface cracks developed so far have the disadvantage of being vulnerable to physical impact and moisture. Due to these problems, crack-healable polymers changed healing capability by the external environment, resulted in limitations in the field of application.<br/>In this study, we made a crack-healable monomer HFA(Hexadecafluorodecane-1,10-diyl bis(3-phenylacrylate)) with no alteration in the healing efficiency owing to moisture or external environment using fluorine compounds. HFA has a structure including a cinnamoyl structure and that has a reversible covalent bond structure capable of absorbing 270nm UV than be possible [2+2] cycloaddition, thereby manufacturing a polymer capable of crack-healable through polymerization. Since the pure poly(HFA) film has a high contact angle, excellent surface slip property, and fine surface antifouling characteristics with respect to an external environment. But it has a haze surface due to much fluorine compounds and thus is not suitable for optical application.<br/>Therefore, we designed a copolymer with a cinnamoyl monomer DCE(1,1-di(cinnamoyl oxymethyl)ethane) without a fluorine compound to solve the shortcomings of HFA. We were able to find the most suitable molar ratio for producing the copolymer poly(HFA-ran-DCE) through experiments, and the polymer was analyzed to confirm (1) high contact angle(&gt;100°), (2) high transmittance(&gt;90 T%), (3) high hardness(&gt;2H, pencil hardness), and 4) crack-healable property by UV irradiation.<br/>And we tried to apply poly(HFA-ran-DCE) film on solar cell panels, which mainly used 500~1000nm, and confirmed the crack-healable property of polymer by UV exposure time. Consequentially crack-healable poly(HFA-ran-DCE) films are expected to solve phenomena such as solar absorption failure due to cracks on the panel surface and degradation of energy efficiency due to short wavelengths.

Hydrophobic and uv-responsive crack-healable polymer: Surface application on silicon solar cell and solar panel

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ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.