The extensive development of electronic systems and telecommunications has lead to major concerns regarding electromagnetic pollution. Motivated by environmental questions and by a wide variety of applications, the quest for materials with high efficiency to mitigate electromagnetic interferences (EMI) pollution has become a mainstream field of research. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art research in the design and characterization of polymer/carbon based composites as EMI shielding materials. After a brief introduction, in Section 1, the electromagnetic theory will be briefly discussed in Section 2 setting the foundations of the strategies to be employed to design efficient EMI shielding materials. These materials will be classified in the next section by the type of carbon fillers, involving carbon black, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes and graphene. The importance of the dispersion method into the polymer matrix (melt-blending, solution processing, etc.) on the final material properties will be discussed. The combination of carbon fillers with other constituents such as metallic nanoparticles or conductive polymers will be the topic of Section 4. The final section will address advanced complex architectures that are currently studied to improve the performances of EMI materials and, in some cases, to impart additional properties such as thermal management and mechanical resistance. In all these studies, we will discuss the efficiency of the composites/devices to absorb and/or reflect the EMI radiation.

Polymer/carbon based composites as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials

A strain sensor has been fabricated from a polymer nanocomposite with multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) fillers. The piezoresistivity
of this nanocomposite strain sensor has been investigated based on an improved three-dimensional (3D) statistical resistor network
model incorporating the tunneling effect between the neighboring carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and a fiber reorientation model. The
numerical results agree very well with the experimental measurements. As compared with traditional strain gauges, much higher sensitivity
can be obtained in the nanocomposite sensors when the volume fraction of CNT is close to the percolation threshold. For a small
CNT volume fraction, weak nonlinear piezoresistivity is observed both experimentally and from numerical simulation. The tunneling
effect is considered to be the principal mechanism of the sensor under small strains.

Tunneling effect in a polymer/carbon nanotube nanocompositestrain sensor

With the rapid arising of information technology, microwave absorbing materials (MAMs) are playing an increasingly significant role in electronic reliability, healthcare, and national defense security. Hence, development of high performance MAMs with thin thickness, low density, wide bandwidth, and strong absorption has attracted great interests. Recently, taking graphene as MAMs for high-performance electromagnetic (EM) wave attenuation has grabbed considerable attention, owing to their low density, high specific surface area, strong dielectric loss, and high electronic conductivity. Furthermore, in order to address the interfacial impedance mismatching of the sole graphene materials, incorporation of other lossy materials has been widely studied as the imperative solution to improve its MA performance. In this review, we introduce the theory of microwave absorption and summarize recent advances in the fabrication of graphene-based MAMs, including rational design of the microstructure of pure graphene and tunable chemical integrations with polymers, magnetic metals, ferrites, ceramics, and multicomponents composites. The key point of enhancing MA in graphene-based MAMs is to regulate their EM properties, improve of impedance matching, and create diversified loss mechanisms. Furthermore, the shortcomings, challenges, and prospects of graphene-based MAMs are also put forward, which will be helpful to people working in the related fields.

Graphene-based microwave absorbing composites: A review and prospective

Carbon materials for structural self-sensing, electromagnetic shielding and thermal interfacing

Nano reinforced cement and concrete composites and new perspective from graphene oxide

Enhanced effect of carbon nanotube on mechanical and electrical properties of cement composites by incorporation of silica fume

This present study suggests a novel and simple fabrication procedure of electromagnetic wave shielding/absorbing composites made of carbon nanotube (CNT)-embedded epoxy. CNT-incorporated epoxy films (CNT films) were fabricated through three-roll milling and laminating processes. Multi-layered CNT–epoxy composites (CNT plates) were fabricated by stacking the CNT films layer-by-layer to improve the electrical properties of the composites. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness and sheet resistance of the composites were investigated with variation of thickness. Comparisons of electromagnetic characteristics between CNT plates and CNT films were made and the results explicitly showed improvement of shielding properties in a frequency band of interest from 1 to 5 GHz.

I.W. Nam

Papers

Enhanced effect of carbon nanotube on mechanical and electrical properties of cement composites by incorporation of silica fume

Electromagnetic interference shielding/absorbing characteristics of CNT-embedded epoxy composites

Influence of silica fume additions on electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of multi-walled carbon nanotube/cement composites

Carbon nanotube (CNT) incorporated cementitious composites for functional construction materials: The state of the art

Flexural stress and crack sensing capabilities of MWNT/cement composites