A Comprehensive Indoor and Outdoor Aging of the Cross-Linked EVA Encapsulant Material for Photovoltaic Conversion

The goal of this research is to better understand the effect of aging on thermal relaxations, physical properties, and thermo-mechanical properties of the cross-linked EVA. The results suggest that for the aged EVA, recrystallization due to the UV photo-degradation is the dominant physical process occurring during indoor aging. The aged EVA shows clear evidence several additional secondary melting peaks, as well as changes in the main melting region. Higher temperature levels during outdoor exposure caused greater changes in the polymer morphology, which led to stiffening of the polymer and solar cell delamination due to adhesion loss of the packaging system.