Enhancement of electromagnetic interference shielding properties of hemp fiber sandwiched carbon fiber composites using electroless NiP coating

The present study aimed to improve the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) of woven hemp fiber (HF) sandwiched carbon fiber (CF) epoxy composites using electroless Nickel-phosphorus coating. Furthermore, the phase composition, functional groups, microstructure, elemental composition, mapping and electrical conductivity of the raw fiber and coated fiber were analyzed in detail. Three different composite samples were prepared and their EMI SE was studied using a key sight 9374A vector network analyzer with 8-12 GHz frequency band (X-band frequency). The EMI SET of the raw HF sandwiched CF composite (S1) was observed as 61.17 dB. But, the addition of 1-layer coated HF between CF (S2) has increased the EMI SET from 61.17 to 83.16 dB. The 2 layer coated HF between CF (S3) had exhibited 92.77 dB which is 51.66 % higher than the S1 composite.