Highly flexible, PEDOT:PSS-polyvinylpyrrolidone coated carbon nanofiber-polydimethylsiloxane composite for electromagnetic interference shielding

Lightweight, flexible and portable electronics, and wearable devices are recognized as the next-generation electronic devices. Rapid growth in the usage of such devices will add to electromagnetic interference (EMI) or EM pollution in an alarming magnitude. Hence, lightweight, hydrophobic, and flexible EMI shielding materials capable of effectively reducing EMI are urgently required. The present work reports fabrication of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coated, carbonized electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber (CNF) and their flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites. The material showed excellent EMI shielding effectiveness of 44 dB in the frequency range of 8–26.5 GHz with a thickness of 0.06 mm due to the synergetic effect of CNF matrix, PEDOT: PSS, and PVP. It also exhibited a high absolute EMI SE of 5678 dB cm2 g−1 with low loading of PEDOT:PSS-PVP. Here, PEDOT:PSS-PVP/CNF shows EMI shielding through an absorption dominated mechanism rather than reflection. These findings indicate the potential of these composites as thin, flexible, hydrophobic, and lightweight EMI shielding materials for practical applications.