Scalable and low-cost fabrication of highly oriented ultra-thin GAs pressed films for100% EMI shielding protection

Abstract

Achieving ~100% electromagnetic interference (EMI) full shielding protection for military systems, pregnant women, and electromagnetic hypersensitive populations is urgently needed, but still faces huge challenges. In this study, we have developed a unique technical route for preparing ultra-thin and flexible graphene aggregates (GAs)-pressed films with high-orientation, which is realized by constructing GAs oriented aligned foams and then simply pressing the GAs foams in one direction. Benefiting from its high orientation (Herman’s orientation factors, f = 0.94) and remarkable compactness (porosity of 9.8%), the 42.5 µm-thick GAs pressed film exhibits an exceptionally high conductivity of 4.072×105 S/m and outstanding flexibility (no variation in conductivity after 100 bends). More interestingly, this ultra-thin GAs pressed film exhibits an EMI shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of up to 102 dB in the X-band, which is significantly higher than those of other films of comparable thickness reported in recent years, suggesting that the ultra-thin GAs pressed film has great potential for the application fields where 100 % EMI full shielding protection is required.