Strength and Stiffness of Double-Glass (3.2 mm) PV Panels Laminated with Soft Siloxane (PDMS) Gel for Zero Emission Room-Temperature Intact-Glass Recycling: Comparison with Double-Glass (1.6 mm) PV Panels Laminated with Solid EVA Polymer

The aim of this article is to assess whether a 3.2/3.2 mm fully tempered double-glass PV architecture laminated with soft PDMS provides sufficient glass-level stiffness while enabling room-temperature mechanical delamination with recovery of intact glass sheets. It is compared with a lightweight 1.6/1.6 mm semitempered glass architecture laminated with crosslinked EVA. Under identical loading, geometry, and support conditions, the estimated EVA-to-PDMS deflection ratio is approximately 2 at 25 °C and approximately 8 at 85 °C. The glass fracture resistance index is approximately sevenfold higher. These analytical estimates indicate the stiffness advantage of the 3.2/3.2 mm PDMS laminate; they are not complete-module measurements. The key contribution of this article is the optimization of the mechanical delamination of a PDMS-laminated double-glass PV panel at room temperature while keeping both glass sheets intact. Successive process optimization reduced the complete-cycle time within the observed range from 16 to 4 min. Four minutes was the shortest cycle achieved without visible glass fracture, and the maximum local front-propagation speed without visible fracture was approximately 40 mm/s. Optimization requires 2 min delamination without glass fracture. Published reports of glass/EVA/TPT PV panel delamination required thermal assistance and did not demonstrate equivalent room-temperature intact-glass delamination.