The present invention relates to a composition for an encapsulant film including an ethylene/alpha-olefin copolymer having high volume resistance and light transmittance, and an encapsulant film using the same.

The invention relates to a layer element comprising three layers A, B and C in the configuration A-B-C wherein layers A and B and layers B and C are in adhering contact with each other, an article, preferably a photovoltaic module, comprising said layer element, a process for preparing said layer element, a process for preparing a photovoltaic module comprising said layer element and the use of said layer element as integrated backsheet element of a photovoltaic module.

Provided is a method of manufacturing an electrolyte for dye-sensitized solar cells, the method including: preparing a hydrogel membrane; immersing the hydrogel membrane in an electrolyzing solution containing iodine or iodide such that the hydrogel membrane is impregnated with iodide ions; and drying the hydrogel membrane.

An encapsulant of a photovoltaic module, intended for coating a photovoltaic cell, having a composition which does not include any cross-linking agent and including: an ethylene—alkyl acrylate copolymer, the copolymer making up 70% to 96% of the weight of the composition; a silane, making up 0.1% to 2% of the weight of the composition; wherein the composition also includes a terpolymer of ethylene—acrylic ester—maleic anhydride or glycidyl methacrylate, the terpolymer making up 2% to 29.9% of the weight of the composition. Also relates to the use of such an encapsulant in a photovoltaic module as well as to a photovoltaic module including such an encapsulant.

An encapsulant of a photovoltaic module, intended for coating a photovoltaic cell, having a composition which does not include any cross-linking agent and including: an ethylene—alkyl acrylate copolymer, the copolymer making up 70% to 96% of the weight of the composition; a silane, making up 0.1% to 2% of the weight of the composition; wherein the composition also includes a terpolymer of ethylene—acrylic ester—maleic anhydride or glycidyl methacrylate, the terpolymer making up 2% to 29.9% of the weight of the composition. Also relates to the use of such an encapsulant in a photovoltaic module as well as to a photovoltaic module including such an encapsulant.

This disclosure concerns electrically conducting poly(pyrazoles). The concept of oligomerizing and polymerizing substituted aminopyrazole derivatives combined with a monomer activation procedure involving base-mediated conversion of the protonated pyrazole ring nitrogen to amine salt was developed. This disclosure concerns the specific chemistries needed for the synthesis of a pyrazole monomer used in the polymer synthesis. The procedure used for blending the novel polypyrazoles with other compounds needed for construction of solar cells for testing was developed. This disclosure concerns the concept of using these types of heteroatom-rich, electron-deficient oligomers or polymers as n-dopable or p-dopable electron acceptors in photovoltaic cells. This disclosure concerns synthesizing the starting monomer compounds and polypyrazoles.

A composite article includes a multilayer barrier assembly bonded to a substrate, and a top polymer layer bonded to the multilayer barrier assembly opposite the substrate. The multilayer barrier assembly comprises a base polymer layer and a base inorganic barrier layer. The base polymer layer comprises a polymerized reaction product of polymerizable components comprising at least one di(meth)acrylate represented by the formula: Formula (I) Each R.sup.1 independently represents H or methyl; each R.sup.2 independently represents an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms; x=0, 1, 2, 3, or 4; and z=0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, with the provisos that at least one of x and z is not zero and 1≤x+z≤4. Methods of making the same are also disclosed. ##STR00001##

This disclosed is an encapsulant film made from a curable composition comprising: (A) a polyolefin polymer; (B) an organic peroxide; (C) a silane coupling agent; and (D) a co-agent comprising a silane compound of formula (I). This further disclosed is a process for preparing said encapsulant film.

The present invention discloses an encapsulation composition, an encapsulation film including the encapsulation composition, and an electronic device module. The encapsulation composition includes a polymer matrix, a tackifier and a free radical initiator. Based on 100 parts by weight of the polymer matrix, the polymer matrix includes 5 to 100 parts by weight of highly branched polyethylene (P1), 0 to 95 parts by weight of an ethylene-α-olefin copolymer, and 0 to 70 parts by weight of an ethylene-polar monomer copolymer. The highly branched polyethylene (P1) is an ethylene homopolymer having a branch structure and has a degree of branching of not less than 40 branches/1,000 carbon atoms. A density of the ethylene-α-olefin copolymer is not higher than 0.91 g/cm.sup.3. The encapsulation composition provided by the present invention has good volume resistivity, aging resistance, processability and low cost.

The present invention relates to polyester and carbodiimide containing transparent films for solar cells, which are characterized by improved resistance to hydrolysis, and also to the solar cells comprising these films. The carbodiimides have a number-average molar mass M.sub.n of >1000 to <2000 g/mol, determined by GPC, measured in tetrahydrofuran (THF) against polystyrene as standard.