Water vapor is one of the major reasons for corrosion and aging within photovoltaic modules. We investigated different
encapsulants for photovoltaic devices in respect of their water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), diffusion profile and
saturation concentration for varied climatic conditions (temperature and relative air humidity). For measuring the WVTR
a gravimetric testing procedure was used, the diffusion profile was detected by infrared-absorption-spectroscopy in the
wavelength range of 1.7 μm to 2.9 μm. The tested materials are a fast-cure ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA fc), a poly vinyl
butyral (PVB), a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), an ionomer (ION) and a thermoplastic silicone (TSI). It was
ascertained that the thermoplastics foils (TPU and TSI) have the highest WVTR, the ionomer the lowest. The saturation
concentration of PVB was the highest at all, followed by TPU and EVA. The silicone and the ionomer store practically
no water.
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