Thermally conductive and electrically insulating EVA composite.pdfVIP

eXPRESS Polymer Letters Vol.2, No.5 (2008) 357–363 Available online at DOI: 10.3144/expresspolymlett.2008.42 Thermally conductive and electrically insulating EVA composite encapsulants for solar photovoltaic (PV) cell 1,2* 3 1 1 1 B. Lee , J. Z. Liu , B. Sun , C. Y. Shen , G. C. Dai 1National Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, P. R. China 2School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, P. R. China 3Shanghai Solar Energy Science and Technology Co., Ltd., West Gangde Road, Shanghai 200336, P. R. China Received 26 February 2008; accepted in revised form 26 March 2008 Abstract. A new way of improving the heat dissipating ability and PV efficiency of the solar cells by enhancing the ther- mal conductivity of the rear EVA layer was reported. The thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity, degree of curing of the EVA encapsulating composites and the PV efficiency of the solar cells are investigated. Filling with the thermal conductive fillers enhances the thermal conductivity of the composites effectively. The thermal conductivity of the filler influences sig- nificantly the thermal conductivity of the composite at high filler loading (greater than 20 vol%). Thermal conductivities of the composites filled with SiC, ZnO or BN reach respectively 2.85, 2.26 and 2.08 W/m·K at filler content of 60 vol%. The composites filled with ZnO or BN exhibit superior electrical insulation to those filled with SiC or Al O . ZnO can promote 2 3 the cross-linking reaction of the EVA matrix. The test results indicated that the EVA composite encapsulating rear films filled with thermal conductive fillers are able to improve