J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2025, Vol. 227: 96-107.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2024.12.019

• Research article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Construction of self-healing polycaprolactone composite foams with segregated structure for superior electromagnetic interference shielding

Xin Yana, Hexin Zhanga,*, Weihua Gub,*, KeunByoung Yoonc,*   

  1. aSchool of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan 243032, China;
    bSchool of Material Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan 243002, China;
    cDepartment of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea
  • Received:2024-12-03 Revised:2024-12-28 Accepted:2024-12-30 Online:2025-01-14
  • Contact: *E-mail addresses: hxzhang@ahut.edu.cn (H. Zhang), guweihua0126@ahut.edu.cn (W. Gu), kbyoon@knu.ac.kr (K. Yoon)

Abstract: Electromagnetic interference shielding materials are inevitably damaged during service, causing a serious decline in their shielding performance. Therefore, it is urgent to develop polymer-based composites with excellent electromagnetic shielding and self-healing properties. In this study, a layered foam/film structure polycaprolactone composite characterized by electric/magnetic bifunctionality was constructed by a hot-pressing process and supercritical carbon dioxide foaming. The microcellular framework offers rich heterogeneous interfaces and improves electromagnetic attenuation capabilities. Such a reasonable construction of asymmetric shielding networks optimizes the impedance matching, while the incident electromagnetic waves form a special attenuation mode of “absorption-reflection-reabsorption”. The polycaprolactone composite foam exhibits an excellent electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of 53.6 dB in the X-band and a low reflection value of only 0.36, effectively reducing secondary pollution. In addition, the damaged polycaprolactone composite foam exhibits over 93 % electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness and healing efficiency, ensuring the long-term stability of the material in practical applications.

Key words: Microwave absorption, Electromagnetic interference shielding, Self-healing, Polycaprolactone, Electrical activation