Insights into the moisture-induced degradation mechanisms on field-deployed CIGS modules

Moisture ingress is known to be one of the most frequent and detrimental causes of photovoltaic (PV) modules degradation. In an original approach, the present work applies the full analytic capability of lab-scale equipment to characterize a commercial Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 (CIGS) module that degraded in the field due to moisture ingress. By...

Classification of (micro)plastics using cathodoluminescence and machine learning

Microplastics are a growing environmental and toxicological concern, having been found in the remotest locations of the earth and within multiple organs of the human body. However, the scale of the problem is not yet fully known as the smallest micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) cannot accurately be measured due to limitations in measurement and...

Printable elastic conductors by in situ formation of silver nanoparticles from silver flakes

Printable elastic conductors promise large-area stretchable sensor/actuator networks for healthcare, wearables and robotics. Elastomers with metal nanoparticles are one of the best approaches to achieve high performance, but large-area utilization is limited by difficulties in their processability. Here we report a printable elastic conductor...

Voltage-controlled surface wrinkling of elastomeric coatings

Wrinkling of elastomeric coatings by an electric field is reported. The associated changes in the coating's optical properties yield switchable mirrors and windows. The field Ec needed to induce wrinkling is a factor of 4.4 lower than the theoretically predicted value, which is attributed to space-charge injection. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH...

Modelling piloted ignition of wood and plastics

To gain insight in the startup of an incinerator, this article deals with piloted ignition. A newly developed model is described to predict the piloted ignition times of wood, PMMA and PVC. The model is based on the lower flammability limit and the adiabatic flame temperature at this limit. The incoming radiative heat flux, sample thickness and...

Polyurethanes for potential use in transparent armour investigated using DSC and DMA

A material combination that may be applied as transparent armour is glass-clad polyurethane. These are comprised of a relatively thin glass strike face and a relatively thick (transparent) polyurethane backing layer. Three transparent polyurethane samples were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical...

Quantitative comparison of adhesion in metal-to-plastic systems

A peel test device was used to monitor metal-polymer adhesion. This technique showed variations in the resulting force within 1%, and enabled the ranking of many systems. A change in the 50 nm-adhesion layer resulted in a variation of the fracture energy by a factor 2.3. A change of the substrate led to a change in adhesion by a factor 40. The...

Determination of the Dilatational Wave Speed in Elastomer layers by Means of an Interferometer

In recent years, TNO has developed a water-filled interferometer, which is able to determine acoustical properties of a sound absorbing material or a compliant layer like the Alberich coating. The frequency range of the measurements is 1.5 to 20 kHz. The main results are mostly in the form of absolute reflection losses of the material mounted...

Gun barrel erosion: Comparison of conventional and LOVA gun propellants

The research department Energetic Materials within TNO Defence, Security and Safety is involved in the development and (safety and insensitive munitions) testing of conventional (nitro cellulose based) and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) based gun propellants. Recently our testing capabilities have been extended with vented vessel tests in order...

Morphology of neutralized low molecular weight maleated ethylene-propylene copolymers (MAn-g-EPM) as investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering

The thermoreversible nature of the ionic associations in aggregates makes ionomers with a low glass transition temperature interesting candidates for thermoplastic elastomers. In this paper, a low-Tg ionomer based on low molecular weight ethylene-propylene copolymers modified by maleic anhydride (MAn-g-EPM) is introduced, and the morphology of a...