New PV encapsulants: assessment of change in optical and thermal properties and chemical degradation after UV aging

This work aims to investigate the change in chemical and physical properties of different polymeric materials, potentially usable for photovoltaic modules encapsulation, caused by UV aging. Three classes of polymeric materials have been examined: ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA), thermoplastic polyolefins (TPO) and polyolefin elastomers (POE). EVA is currently the most used encapsulant in the photovoltaic field; TPO and POE are new materials, alternative to EVA, which can allow to overcome some of the reliability problems of photovoltaic modules linked to the degradation of EVA properties. Of each of these three material classes, different commercially available encapsulating polymer films, with different chemical formulations, have been examined. Stressful environmental conditions have been simulated in a climatic chamber and the associated changes in optical, thermal and chemical properties of the different encapsulants have been analysed and compared before and after UV aging. The link between the chemical structure, formulation and degradation of the encapsulants with their lifetime under simulated conditions of UV stress has been investigated by the assessment of the changes in thermal stability, optical transmittance, crystallinity, yellowness index and chemical degradation. This study helps to better understand the causes of the module performance reduction due to the degradation of the encapsulant material and is a guide for the selection of encapsulant films with improved characteristics, for the manufacture of more durable PV modules.