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Outdoor Exposure Degradation of Ethylene-Vinyl-Acetate Encapsulant Material for Photovoltaic Application

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Book cover Thermal Degradation of Polymer Blends, Composites and Nanocomposites

Part of the book series: Engineering Materials ((ENG.MAT.))

Abstract

Apart from chemical structure, thermal properties of polymers depend mainly on polymer morphology, which is affected by the processing conditions. Outdoor exposure of the materials leads to changes in polymer morphology. The main objective of this experimental investigation was to better understand the changes due to thermal transitions and the molecular organizations of the crosslinked Ethylene-Vinyl-Acetate (EVA) encapsulant material after aging in outdoor exposure. EVA samples are characterized by various thermal and spectroscopic analysis techniques like thermally stimulated current, which is a very sensitive toll to detect polymer degradation. Results show a significant decrease in most properties of EVA in natural field exposure due principally to the specificity of the exposure site. For the aged EVA samples, the distinctive feature of these results is that there are two different endothermic processes due to the recrystallization phenomenon. Furthermore, the difference of the magnitude of peak current by TSC technique suggests increased crosslinking exposure occurring selectively in the high temperature phase as a result of outdoor exposure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Semiconductors Technology for Energetic Research Center (CRTSE), 2, Bd. Dr. Frantz Fanon, BP 140 Alger 7 Merveilles, Algiers, Algeria

    K. Agroui

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    G. Collins

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  1. K. Agroui
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Correspondence to K. Agroui .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Basic Safety, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia

    P. M. Visakh

  2. Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yoshihiko Arao

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Agroui, K., Collins, G. (2015). Outdoor Exposure Degradation of Ethylene-Vinyl-Acetate Encapsulant Material for Photovoltaic Application. In: Visakh, P., Arao, Y. (eds) Thermal Degradation of Polymer Blends, Composites and Nanocomposites. Engineering Materials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03464-5_8

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