Metals are recognized as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials owing to their high electrical conductivity. However, the need for light and flexible EMI shielding materials has emerged, owing to the heavyweight and inflexible nature of metals. Carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer composites have been studied as promising flexible EMI shielding materials because of their lightweight nature due to the low density of CNTs and their high electrical conductivity. CNTs evenly dispersed in the polymer form an electrically conductive network, and the aspect ratio of the CNTs, which are one-dimensional nanofillers, is an important factor affecting electrical conductivity. In this study, we prepared three types of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) with different aspect ratios and fabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/MWNT composites. Subsequently, the electrical conductivities and electrical percolation thresholds of the three PDMS/MWNT composites with different MWNT aspect ratios were measured to analyze the behavior of electrically conducting network formation according to the aspect ratio. Furthermore, the total EMI shielding effectiveness of each composite was determined to evaluate the effect of the MWNT aspect ratio on the EMI shielding. Reflection and absorption of electromagnetic wave were measured for the PDMS/MWNT composite with the largest aspect ratio to analyze the EMI shielding mechanism of the composite. Additionally, the effects of the MWNT content on the conductivity and EMI shielding performance were examined. The results provide valuable guidance for designing polymer MWNT composites with good electrical conductivity and EMI shielding performance under different aspect ratios of MWNTs.

Lightweight and flexible electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are in great demand for wearable EMI device. In the present work, lightweight and flexible carbon nanotube (CNT)/ferroferric oxide ( Fe3O4) composite film was made through a feasible chemical vapor deposition process for CNT film synthesis, followed by a hydrothermal reduction process for Fe3O4 coating. In the as-prepared composite, CNT film and Fe3O4 particles work as conductive skeleton and strong magnetic particle, respectively. The as-prepared composite film shows a novel EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of 91 dB in the X-band, a small thickness of 0.09 mm and a low density of 0.86 g/cm3, which is superior to most of the carbonbased EMI materials.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding is an important issue in modern daily life due to the increasing prevalence of electronic devices and their compact design. This study estimated EMI-shielding effect (EMI-SE) of small (8–14×17 mm) Hanji (Korean traditional paper) doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and compared to Hanji without CNT using 2H (92.1 MHz) and 23Na (158.7 MHz) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) peak area data obtained from 1 M NaCl in D2O samples in capillary tubes that were wrapped in the Hanji samples. The simpler method of using the variation of reflected power and tuning frequency by inserting the sample into an NMR coil was also tested at 242.9, 158.7, and 92.1 MHz. Overall, EMI shielding was relatively more effective at the higher frequencies. Our results validated that NMR methods to be useful to evaluate EMI-SE, particularly for small, flexible shielding materials, and demonstrated that EMI shielding by absorption is dominant in Hanji mixed with CNT.

The microstructure, flexural properties, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) of epoxy composites filled with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnPs) and CNT-xGnP hybrid filler were investigated. The EMI SE of the CNT-xGnP hybrid composite was higher than 25 dB at 100 MHz while that of the xGnP based composite was almost zero. The flexural modulus of the CNT-xGnP based epoxy composite continuously increased to 3.32 GPa with combined filler content up to 10 wt% while that of the CNT based epoxy composites slightly decreased to 1.96 GPa at 4 wt% CNT, and dropped to 1.57 GPa at 5 wt% loading, which is lower than that of epoxy. The CNT and CNT-xGnP samples had the same EMI SE at the same surface resistivity, because samples with the same surface conductivity have the same amount of the charge carriers.

Recently, methods that usea carbon-based filler, a conductive nanomaterial, have been investigated to develop composite fillers containing dielectric materials. In this study, we added geometric changes to a carbon fiber, a typical carbon-based filler material, by differentiating the orientation angle and the number of plies of the fiber. We also studied the electrical and electromagnetic shield characteristics. Based on the orientation angle of 0˚, the orientation angle of the carbon fiber was changed between 0, 15, 30, 45, and 90˚, and 2, 4, and 6 plies were stacked for each orientation angle. The maximum effect was found when the orientation angle was 90˚, which was perpendicular to the electromagnetic wave flow, as compared to 0˚, in which case the electrical resistance was small. Therefore, it is verified that the orientation angle has more of an effect on the electromagnetic interference shield performance than the number of plies.

The conducting polymer-coated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared by template polymerization of aniline and pyrrole on the surface of MWCNTs in order to develop the novel electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials. The conducting polymer phases formed on the surface of MWCNTs were confirmed by field emission-scanning electron microscopy and field emission-transmission electron microscopy. Both permittivity and permeability were significantly improved for the conducting polymer-coated MWCNTs due to the intrinsic electrical properties of MWCNTs and the conducting properties of coated polymers. The electromagnetic waves were effectively absorbed based on the permittivity nature of conducting polymer and MWCNTs preventing the secondary interference from reflecting the electromagnetic waves. The highly improved EMI shielding efficiency was also obtained for the conducting polymer-coated MWCNTs showing the synergistic effects by combining MWCNTs and the conducting polymers.

Carbon blacks could be used as the filler for the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. The poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were used as the matrix for the carbon black fillers. Porous carbon blacks were prepared by CO2 activation. The activation was performed by treating the carbon blacks in CO2 to different degrees of burnoff. During the activation, the enlargement of pore diameters, and development of microporous and mesoporous structures were introduced in the carbon blacks, resulting in an increase of extremely large specific surface areas. The porosity of carbon blacks was an increasing function of the degree of burn-off. The surface area increased from 80 m2/g to 1142 m2/g and the total pore volume increased from 0.14073 cc·g-1 to 0.9343 cc·g-1. Also, the C=O functional group characterized by aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and esters was enhanced during the activation process. The EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of raw N330 carbon blacks filled with PVA was about 1 dB and those of the activated carbon blacks increased to the values between 6 and 9 dB. The EMI SE of raw N330 carbon blacks filled with PVDF was about 7 dB and the EMI SE increased to the range from 11 to 15 dB by the activation.