Pub Date : 2024-12-16DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3496512
Kuan Liu;David C. Miller;Nick Bosco;Jimmy M. Newkirk;Tomoko Sakamoto;Reinhold H. Dauskardt
Degradation of photovoltaic (PV) module encapsulant characteristics that lead to mechanical embrittlement and delamination remains a cause of failure in solar installations. A multiscale reliability model connecting the encapsulant mechanical and fracture properties to the degraded molecular structure and interfacial bonding to adjacent solar cell and glass substrates was previously published. The model, developed primarily for poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) acetate (EVA) encapsulants, remains to be experimentally validated. Determining the degradation and crosslinking kinetics of alternative encapsulants, such as polyolefin elastomer (POE) and EVA/POE/EVA composites (EPE), can generalize the model. In this work, we subject fully cured EVA, POE, and EPE encapsulants to accelerated thermal aging to determine how high temperatures impact reaction kinetics. An increase in gel content (crosslinking) and decrease in crystallinity of the encapsulants under hot-aerobic (90 °C, 22% RH) and hot-anaerobic (90 °C, sealed in N2 air) aging were observed, even in the absence of UV and crosslinking initiators. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)-attenuated total reflectance analysis showed insignificant encapsulant degradation, demonstrating the critical role of UV and moisture in accelerating degradation. Adhesion testing performed on coupon-level specimens (cell/encapsulant/glass laminates) showed decreases in adhesion energy, Gc, from 5000 h of hot-dry (90 °C, ∼1% RH) and hot-humid (90 °C, 60% RH) aging. POE coupons demonstrated the best stability, followed by EPE then EVA. For EVA and POE, hot-humid aged coupons experienced a larger decrease in Gc due to enhanced hydrolytic degradation. Hot-dry aging condition demonstrated that thermal degradation of the interface could be significant even if the encapsulant experiences negligible degradation in the absence of UV and elevated humidity.
{"title":"Investigating the Crosslinking, Degradation, and Adhesion Behavior of Photovoltaic Encapsulants Under Thermal Accelerated Aging","authors":"Kuan Liu;David C. Miller;Nick Bosco;Jimmy M. Newkirk;Tomoko Sakamoto;Reinhold H. Dauskardt","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3496512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3496512","url":null,"abstract":"Degradation of photovoltaic (PV) module encapsulant characteristics that lead to mechanical embrittlement and delamination remains a cause of failure in solar installations. A multiscale reliability model connecting the encapsulant mechanical and fracture properties to the degraded molecular structure and interfacial bonding to adjacent solar cell and glass substrates was previously published. The model, developed primarily for poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) acetate (EVA) encapsulants, remains to be experimentally validated. Determining the degradation and crosslinking kinetics of alternative encapsulants, such as polyolefin elastomer (POE) and EVA/POE/EVA composites (EPE), can generalize the model. In this work, we subject fully cured EVA, POE, and EPE encapsulants to accelerated thermal aging to determine how high temperatures impact reaction kinetics. An increase in gel content (crosslinking) and decrease in crystallinity of the encapsulants under hot-aerobic (90 °C, 22% RH) and hot-anaerobic (90 °C, sealed in N<sub>2</sub> air) aging were observed, even in the absence of UV and crosslinking initiators. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)-attenuated total reflectance analysis showed insignificant encapsulant degradation, demonstrating the critical role of UV and moisture in accelerating degradation. Adhesion testing performed on coupon-level specimens (cell/encapsulant/glass laminates) showed decreases in adhesion energy, <italic>G<sub>c</sub></i>, from 5000 h of hot-dry (90 °C, ∼1% RH) and hot-humid (90 °C, 60% RH) aging. POE coupons demonstrated the best stability, followed by EPE then EVA. For EVA and POE, hot-humid aged coupons experienced a larger decrease in <italic>G<sub>c</sub></i> due to enhanced hydrolytic degradation. Hot-dry aging condition demonstrated that thermal degradation of the interface could be significant even if the encapsulant experiences negligible degradation in the absence of UV and elevated humidity.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 2","pages":"309-319"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143455239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-04DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3507079
António J. N. Oliveira;Bin Du;Kevin D. Dobson;Jennifer P. Teixeira;Maria R. P. Correia;Pedro M. P. Salomé;William N. Shafarman
The conversion efficiency of CdTe solar cells may be improved by bandgap engineering, i.e., changing the bandgap value through the addition of Se in the absorber. The Se alloying enables a short-circuit current density improvement, as it leads to a bandgap energy value decrease. Furthermore, it has been associated with increased minority carrier lifetimes, assuring high open-circuit voltage values. An Se gradient profile control can further optimize the solar cell performance. Thus, an optical model baseline of the CdSexTe1−x (CST) compound was developed. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were conducted to accurately extract the optical constants of ten CST layers deposited through coevaporation with x varying from 0 to 1. Using the measured dielectric function spectra from the discrete CST layers with varying x, and considering the composition-induced shift in the critical point energies, an energy-shift model was employed to develop the accurate optical library for the CST compound for any x value to provide data for future modeling and optimization. The library accuracy was validated through optical simulations of the quantum efficiency of a graded CST solar cell using the finite-difference time-domain method by replicating the Se profile in the absorber layer measured through secondary ion mass spectrometry.
{"title":"Development of an Optical Library for Coevaporated CdSexTe1−x","authors":"António J. N. Oliveira;Bin Du;Kevin D. Dobson;Jennifer P. Teixeira;Maria R. P. Correia;Pedro M. P. Salomé;William N. Shafarman","doi":"10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3507079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3507079","url":null,"abstract":"The conversion efficiency of CdTe solar cells may be improved by bandgap engineering, i.e., changing the bandgap value through the addition of Se in the absorber. The Se alloying enables a short-circuit current density improvement, as it leads to a bandgap energy value decrease. Furthermore, it has been associated with increased minority carrier lifetimes, assuring high open-circuit voltage values. An Se gradient profile control can further optimize the solar cell performance. Thus, an optical model baseline of the CdSe<italic><sub>x</sub></i>Te<sub>1−</sub><italic><sub>x</sub></i> (CST) compound was developed. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were conducted to accurately extract the optical constants of ten CST layers deposited through coevaporation with <italic>x</i> varying from 0 to 1. Using the measured dielectric function spectra from the discrete CST layers with varying <italic>x</i>, and considering the composition-induced shift in the critical point energies, an energy-shift model was employed to develop the accurate optical library for the CST compound for any <italic>x</i> value to provide data for future modeling and optimization. The library accuracy was validated through optical simulations of the quantum efficiency of a graded CST solar cell using the finite-difference time-domain method by replicating the Se profile in the absorber layer measured through secondary ion mass spectrometry.","PeriodicalId":445,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics","volume":"15 2","pages":"252-260"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143455248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-04DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2024.3501403
Preeti Kumari Sahu;Efstratios I. Batzelis;Chandan Chakraborty;J. N. Roy
Although the bifacial photovoltaic (PV) module is now a mature technology, there still exists a gap in the literature on its electrical modeling and equivalent circuit representation. Most published studies have mainly focused on the photocurrent while overlooking other crucial parameters for the electrical response of the module. Even so, the photocurrent of the bifacial module is simplistically treated as the sum of individual currents of the front and rear sides, a hypothesis challenged in this study. Notably, our research has uncovered a discrepancy that can exceed 15%, and we address this issue by introducing a correction factor in this article. This article introduces a comprehensive electrical model that effectively integrates bifacial PV modules' front and rear sides into a single $-$