Exceptional electromagnetic shielding efficiency of silver coated carbon fiber fabrics via a roll-to-roll spray coating process

Abstract

We have reported exceptionally high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) for flexible weaved carbon fiber fabrics (CFFs), which were spray-coated with Ag nanoparticle ink without surface modification of the CFF substrate. CFFs spray coated with Ag on a roll-to-roll (R2R) platform with a total composite thickness of 460 μm exhibited a remarkable EMI SE of 102 dB, with a density of 0.52 g cm⁻³. The specific EMI SE and absolute EMI SE obtained were 194 dB cm³ g⁻¹ and 4266 dB cm² g⁻¹, respectively. These results suggest that the R2R spray coating of conductive metal inks such as Ag on CFFs is an economical, promising, and scalable approach for manufacturing fabrics with exceptional EMI SE.