Title of the paper: Functionalized Graphene–PVDF Foam Composites for EMI Shielding

Authors: Varrla Eswaraiah,Venkataraman Sankaranarayanan,Sundara Ramaprabhu

University/Institute: Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

Abstract: Novel foam composites comprising functionalized graphene (f-G) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were prepared and electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding efficiency of the composites with different mass fractions of f-G have been investigated. The electrical conductivity increases with the increase in concentration of f-G in insulating PVDF matrix. A dramatic change in the conductivity is observed from 10⁻¹⁶ S · m⁻¹ for insulating PVDF to 10⁻⁴ S · m⁻¹ for 0.5 wt.% f-G reinforced PVDF composite, which can be attributed to high-aspect-ratio and highly conducting nature of f-G nanofiller, which forms a conductive network in the polymer. An EMI shielding effectiveness of ≈20 dB is obtained in X-band (8–12 GHz) region and 18 dB in broadband (1–8 GHz) region for 5 wt.% of f-G in foam composite. The application of conductive graphene foam composites as lightweight EMI shielding materials for X-band and broadband shielding has been demonstrated and the mechanism of EMI shielding in f-G/PVDF foam composites has been discussed.

Links to the paper (link to the journal webpage): http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mame.201100035/abstract