With the development of smart wearable devices, flexible sensing and electromagnetic shielding were put forward higher requirement. Melamine foams were used as substrate, and their skeleton were then coated with carbon nanoparticles. Carbon/melamine composite foams with flexible sensing and electromagnetic shielding, were then prepared by such low-cost, short cycle process of infiltration and electroless nickel plating. Microstructure, cyclic compression, stress sensing and electromagnetic shielding properties of composite foams, were investigated by SEM, universal testing machine, electrochemical workstation and vector network analyzer, respectively. Results showed that carbon/melamine composite foams had tiny open cells and three-dimensional reticular structure, exhibited good compressive toughness. Its maximum stress is 2.75 MPa, and absorbed energy of cyclic compression is 22.17 MJ·cm-3 during first two cycles after electroless nickel plating. Carbon/melamine composite foams presented piezoresistive sensing characteristics, with sensitivity of (0.62±0.06)kPa-1 under different external load in low stress range. They also showed good sensing accuracy, and wide testing range. While after electroless nickel plating, composite foams exhibited good sensing accuracy in high stress range, with increasing response current, and showed sensitivity of (3. 38±1. 0)kPa-1. Electromagnetic shielding was dominated by absorption shielding effectiveness for composite foams. It showed positive correlation with densities before electroless nickel plating. Specific electromagnetic shielding value of composite foams reached maximum (182.86 dB·cm3·g-1)at the density of 0.168 g·cm-3. The optimal value of SSET was 178.61 dB·cm2·g-1 after electroless nickel plating. © 2024 Cailiao Daobaoshe/ Materials Review. All rights reserved.
