This paper summarizes and reviews the research on electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding with intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs), mainly polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPY), and their composites in various frequency ranges. ICPs are new alternative candidates for EMI shielding applications due to their lightweight, corrosion resistance, ease of processing, and tunable conductivities as compared with typical metals. More importantly, the dominant shielding characteristic of absorption other than that of reflection for metals render ICPs more promising materials in applications requiring not only high EMI shielding effectiveness but also shielding by absorption, such as in stealth technology. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Intrinsically conducting polymers for electromagnetic interference shielding

Polyaniline is a conducting polymer with incredible promise, but it has had limited use due to poor reaction control and processability associated with conventional morphologies. Polyaniline nanofibers, on the other hand, have demonstrated, through manufacturing techniques discovered during the past decade, increased processability, higher surface area, and improved consistency and stability in aqueous dispersions, which are finally allowing for expanded commercial development of this promising polymer. This review explores some intriguing applications of polyaniline nanofibers, as well as the advantages and remaining challenges in developing better products using polyaniline in this new morphology.

Polyaniline nanofibers: broadening applications for conducting polymers

The present paper reports the complex permittivity, permeability, and microwave absorption properties of core shell type poly (3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene) (PEDOT) nanocomposite with barium ferrite, synthesized by in situ emulsion polymerization, in the 12.4−18 GHz frequency range. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) studies reveal the formation of core−shell type morphology with ferrite particles (60−80 nm) as the center while the polymer (PEDOT) formulates the outer shell of the composite. The presence of barium ferrite nanoparticles in the polymer matrix includes the magnetic losses, which mainly arise from the magnetic hysteresis, domain−wall displacement, and eddy current loss. The higher dielectric (e′′ = 23.5) and magnetic loss (μ′′ = 0.22) contributes to the microwave absorption value of 22.5 dB (>99% attenuation) and are found to increase with the amount of ferrite constituents. The polymer was further characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ener...

Microwave absorption behavior of core-shell structured poly (3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene)-barium ferrite nanocomposites.

Composite absorbers based on conducting fabrics possessing moderate conductivity and dielectric/magnetic properties were prepared by in situ incorporation of nanoparticles of BaTiO3 (15–25 nm) or Fe3O4 (25–40 nm) within coated poly(aniline) (PANI) matrix. The X-ray diffraction patterns and transmission electron microscopy images confirmed the formation of PANI coating and incorporation of BaTiO3 or Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy images show formation of thick and uniform coating of PANI over individual fibers and in interweave regions. The dielectric studies show that incorporation of BaTiO3 lead to enhancement of dielectric properties of PANI whereas magnetization measurements revealed that incorporation of Fe3O4 resulted in noticeable improvement in magnetic properties with saturation magnetization of 17.9 emu/g. The Ku-band (12.4–18.0 GHz) shielding studies revealed that pure PANI-coated fabric show total shielding effectiveness (SET) of −15.3 dB which enhanced to −16.8 and −19.4 dB ...

N Singh

Papers

Shielding behaviour of conducting polymer-coated fabrics in X-band, W-band and radio frequency range

Shielding effectiveness of conducting polyaniline coated fabrics at 101 GHz