A Study on the Annealing Ambient Effect on the Anti-Pollution Characteristics of Functional Film for PV Modules

In this study, functional coating film was fabricated on glass for photovoltaic (PV) modules to improve the anti-pollution characteristics of PV modules. The functional coating film applied to a glass substrate through the spray coating method was annealed at 300 °C for 10 min in H2, N2, Ar, O2, and vacuum ambient. The contact angle of the coated surface was measured and it was confirmed that the anti-pollution characteristics were improved as the contact angle decreased. The light transmittance was measured and it exhibited the most excellent characteristics in vacuum. The hardness and adhesion were measured as the mechanical characteristics and they were all excellent regardless of the annealing ambient. Based on the analyzed characteristics, the process conditions of functional coating films were optimized to improve the anti-pollution and mechanical characteristics. If the coating process optimized in this study is applied to PV modules based on these results, improvement in the anti-pollution characteristics can be expected.