A facile formulation and excellent electromagnetic absorption of room temperature curable polyaniline nanofiber based inks

Abstract

A facile formulation of room temperature curable polyaniline nanofiber based absorbing inks has been developed. The polyaniline nanofiber and polyaniline nanofiber–graphite composite of 1 mm thickness exhibit average EMI shielding effectiveness of 74 and 87 dB, respectively, in the frequency range 8.2–18 GHz which corresponds to about 100% of electromagnetic attenuation. The polyaniline nanofiber based screen printed layer with a thickness of 50 µm shows an EMI shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of above 13 dB. The screen printed pattern formulated using the graphite incorporated polyaniline nanofiber exhibits an EMI SE of about 17 dB which will prevent 98% of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. The dominant shielding mechanism of polyaniline nanofiber based materials is found to be absorption. The polyaniline nanofiber based screen printed pattern exhibits a faster curing time along with the excellent absorption shielding properties.