Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Effectiveness of Graphene Based Conducting Polymer Nanocomposites

Carbon-based conducting polymer nanocomposites were found to be an excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials. In the present work, initially the graphene was functionalized by acid treatment to attach carboxylic functional groups on the surface of the graphene to facilitate the interaction with conducting polymer. Polyaniline (PANI)/Graphene (GNS) and polypyrrole (PPy)/Graphene (GNS) nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization and characterized by SEM, FTIR and UV-VIS analyses. The electrical conductivity of nanocomposites was found to be drastically increased as compared to that of pure conducting polymer. Further, the conductivity of nanocomposites was also found to be increased with the increase in weight % of GNS. Nanocomposites showed semiconducting nature as that of pure conducting polymer with improved dielectric properties andEMI shielding effectiveness. TheEMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of nanocomposites was found to be increased with increasing GNS content. The dominant mechanism of EMI shielding for both PANI/GNS and PPy/GNS nanocomposites is absorption and thus, the nanocomposites can be used as EMI shielding materials to protect electronic devices and components from electromagnetic radiation. The comparative study infers that the shielding effectiveness of PPy/GNS nanaocomposites is less than that of PANI/GNS nanocomposites.