Investigation of shielding properties of conductive cotton composite fabric materials against electromagnetic waves

Abstract

Electromagnetic waves are energy carriers formed by combining electric and magnetic fields. Today, shielding methods have been developed to protect against these electromagnetic fields created by the growing technology causing Electromagnetic interference (EMI). In this study, one of the most widely used plant-based fibers, cotton fabric, was chosen to prepare a conductive and magnetic natural composite material to shield against EMI. For this purpose, cotton fabrics were chemically and physically modified in two consecutive steps. In the first step, the conductive PAn/Cu/cotton composites were prepared by in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline in aqueous acidic media using ammonium persulfate (APS) oxidant and Cu(I) ions in the presence of cotton fabrics, resulting in the coating of both conductive polyaniline (PAn) and reduced Cu particles on the surfaces. In the second step, the physical deposition of individually synthesized magnetic Fe3O4 particles on PAn/Cu/Cotton composites was also achieved. The imparted electrical, structural, wettability, and morphological properties were investigated by surface resistivity measurement and SEM techniques, respectively. Finally, the prepared composites' electromagnetic wave shielding properties (EMSE) were examined in the range of 15 MHz-3 GHz, and it was observed that the composite with the highest conductivity provided 60% absorption-based protection.

Keywords

• Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness
• magnetic ferrite particles
• polyaniline
• copper particles

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