Hierarchical, seamless, edge-rich nanocarbon hybrid foams for highly efficient electromagnetic-interference shielding

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2020.07.020

Abstract

Abstract:

Lightweight, flexible, ultrahigh-performance electromagnetic-interference (EMI) shielding materials are urgently required in the areas of aircraft/aerospace, portable and wearable electronics. Herein, 1D carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon nanofibers (CNF) with 2D edge-rich graphene (ERG) are used to form a lightweight, flexible CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foam. This foam was fabricated through a self-sacrificial templating chemical vapor deposition process, where nanocarbons bond through covalent bonding, forming a hierarchical 3D hybridized carbon nanostructure. Multistage conductive networks and heterogeneous interfaces were constructed using edge-rich nanocarbons to increase the induced currents and interfacial polarization which makes great contributions to achieve high absorption electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (SE_A). The CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foam exhibits EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) exceeding 55.4 dB in the X-band while the specific SE (SSE, SE divided by mass density) achieves 9200 dB cm³ g^-1, which surpasses that of nearly all other carbon-based composite materials. Furthermore, the structural stability and durability of the ﬂexible CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams is examined by measuring EMI SE after 10000 times cyclic bending. Remarkably, this work not only provides a new idea for preparing hierarchical carbon materials for a wide range of applications, but presents some fundamental insights for achieving higher absorption losses in EMI shielding materials.

Key words: Electromagnetic interference shielding, Edge-rich nanocarbons, 3D hierarchical hybrid foams, Lightweight, Flexible

Liyuan Han, Qiang Song, Kezhi Li, Xuemin Yin, Jiajia Sun, Hejun Li, Fengpei Zhang, Xinran Ren, Xi Wang. Hierarchical, seamless, edge-rich nanocarbon hybrid foams for highly efficient electromagnetic-interference shielding[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2021, 72: 154-161.

Figures/Tables 6

Fig. 1. The fabrication process of CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams. (a) schematic of the CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams fabrication; (b) photographs of the SiO2 nanowire foam, CNT foam, CNT-ERG foam and CNT-ERG-CNF foam; SEM image of (c) SiO2 nanowire, (d) CNT, (e) CNT-ERG, (f) CNF-0.06, (g) CNF-0.1 and (h) CNF-0.12.

Fig. 2. TEM characterization of CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams. (a) a connected 3D framework of CNT-ERG; (b) a single CNT-ERG; (c) (d) hierarchical structure of CNT-ERG-CNF foam, showing hollow CNT and a great deal of CNFs grow on ERG; (e) (f) CNF extending to other ERG to form a conductive network; (g) two CNFs extending to different ERG to form a conductive network; (h) two CNFs tangling with each other to form a conductive network; (i) (j) herringbone structure of CNF; (k) (l) CNF and ERG junction area; (m) schematic of five- or seven-membered ring defects in the junction area of CNF and ERG; (n),(o),(p) layer structure model of CNF.

Fig. 3. Characterization of CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams. (a) XRD patterns of samples; (b) Raman spectra of CNT-ERG and CNF-0.1; (c) decomposition of Raman spectra of the first order for CNT-ERG; (d) The relation between ID/IG and FWHM(G); (e) XPS spectra of ERG-CNF and CNF-0.1 in which only involve C 1s and O 1s peaks; (f) decomposition of C 1s XPS spectra of CNF-0.1; (g) the ration of ID/IG obtained by Raman analysis and sp3/sp2 obtained by XPS analysis; (h) FT-IR spectra of samples.

Table 1 Electrical conductivity (S cm-1) of CNT, CNT-ERG and CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams.

CNT	CNT-ERG	CNF-0.06	CNF-0.1	CNF-0.12
0.42 ± 0.02	0.65 ± 0.02	0.58 ± 0.01	0.55 ± 0.01	0.47 ± 0.01

Fig. 4. (a) EMI SE in the X-band of the CNT, CNT-ERG and CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams at a thickness of 1.5 mm; (b) average SET, SER and SEA values in the X-band of the CNT, CNT-ERG and CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams at a thickness of 1.5 mm; (c) average R, A, and T values in the X-band of the CNT, CNT-ERG and CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams at a thickness of 1.5 mm; (d) EMI SE in the X-band of CNF-0.12 foams at different thickness; (e) average SET, SER and SEA values in X-band of CNF-0.12 foams at different thickness; (f) average R, A, and T values in the X-band of the CNT, CNT-ERG and CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams at different thickness; (g) EMI SE in the X-band of CNF-0.12 foams before and after repeatedly bending to a radius of ～2.5 mm for 10000 times; (h) schematic diagram of bending test; (i) the value of SSE and SSE/t of the hybrid foams with different structure and thickness.

Fig. 5. Comparison of SSE/t of different material (a) and the schematic illustration of the EMI shielding mechanism of CNT-ERG-CNF hybrid foams (b).

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