Development and Characterization of Poly Ethylene-Co-Vinyl Acetate (PEVA) Hybrid Nanocomposite Encapsulates for Solar PV

Abstract

In the solar photo voltaic (PV) module, encapsulant material provides the environmental protection, insulation, optical absorption, besides serving as a good adhesive between solar cell and components of PV module for improving the efficiency. It is desired to develop an improved encapsulating material by incorporating the light absorbing inorganic nanofillers in thermoplastic polymers. One such matrix material is poly ethylene-co-vinyl acetate (PEVA), finding its importance in solar materials, such as PV modules and agricultural greenhouse polymer sheets. Inorganic nanofillers have the potential to transmit necessary radiance in the UV spectra, which can improve the PV panel efficiency. In this study, the optimum effect of inorganic fillers such as organically modified montmorillonite clay (OMMT) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) anatase in PEVA matrix is observed. The fabricated nanocomposite films were etched from the glass mold. The morphology and miscibility of fabricated nanocomposite films were analyzed and investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), UV-Vis absorption (UV-Vis), and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The dielectric properties of the fabricated hybrid nanocomposite films were analyzed for its insulation behavior. The thermal behavior was studied using Thermo-gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The hybrid nanocomposite with 5.0 weight percentage (wt.%) OMMT and 5.0 weight percentage (wt.%) of TiO 2 indicates lowest dielectric constant of 2.4 and marginal increase in dissipation factor with respect to frequency. Increased thermal stability, glass transition temperature, high transmittance and optimum UV-shielding efficiency were found with the same wt.% in the proposed work.