Solar panels are multi-materials assemblies constituted of photovoltaic cells that contains numerous precious metals (metal silicon, silver), high quality and therefore costly-to-manufacture glass that protects the cells, and a polymer film acting as binder, called encapsulant. These encapsulants are mostly thermoplastics that are reticulated during the manufacture of photovoltaic panels, which makes their dismantling and recycling difficult today.
CEA develops new materials to bring recyclability to renewable energy production systems, such as photovoltaic panels. The thesis revolves around the development of new encapsulants that allow improved recyclability of photovoltaic panels through a reversible reticulation system. In a first step, the melt grafting (extrusion, internal mixer) of polyolefins with molecules of interest will be studied in terms of grafting efficiency and kinetics, and impact on polyolefins properties such as thermal, optical, and structural properties. In a second step, a reversible reticulation will be triggered using the firstly grafted molecules. The impacts of this reticulation on the material thermal, mechanical, optical properties will be characterized. The application of the material as encapsulants will be the final aim of the thesis, and small demonstrators of photovoltaic modules using the material will be performed.