Facile, green and affordable strategy for structuring natural graphite/polymer composite with efficient electromagnetic interference shielding

Abstract

An electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding composite based on natural, economical graphite and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) with a typical segregated structure was first fabricated by a facile and green method, i.e., mechanical mixing plus hot compaction, without the use of intensive dispersion and any organic solvents. Superior shielding effectiveness of 51.6 dB was achieved at a low graphite loading of only 7.05 vol%, which was comparable to or even superior to the expensive carbon nanofillers (e.g., carbon nanotube and graphene) based polymer composites owning to the successful creation of the segregated structure in which the graphite particles were selectively located at the interfaces of UHMWPE polyhedrons. Our work suggests a new way of effectively utilizing economical graphite in conductive polymer composites, especially for EMI shielding applications.