Preparation of CF/Ni-Fe/CNT/silicone layered rubber for aircraft sealing and electromagnetic interference shielding applications

To meet the needs of preventing information leakage in space engineering and military industry, an efficient method was introduced to obtain layered electromagnetic shielding sealing rubber. The carbon fiber, Ni-Fe coating, and Carbon NanoTube (CNT) were combined by chemical plating and in-situ polymerization to obtain a lightweight (0.14 g/cm2) and thin (1 mm thick) Carbon fiber Fabric (CF)/Ni-Fe/CNT/silicone layered electromagnetic shielding composites. The layered material obtained by adjusting the electroless plating time exhibited a high Shielding Efficiency (SE) of 60.2–85.5 dB in the range of 0–4800 MHz, which can be used for aviation electromagnetic shielding. Carbon fibers and carbon nanotubes mainly attenuated electromagnetic waves through absorption loss, while the nickel-iron alloy coating through reflection loss interacted with the magnetic vector of incident ElectroMagnetic (EM) radiation and magnetic dipoles, therefore, the EM Interference (EMI) shielding composite attenuated EM waves with the "absorption-reflection-absorption" cooperative interaction. Moreover, the flexible fabric substrate adhered with silicone rubber possessed a breaking elongation of 52.3%, which can be utilized as a good sealing material. Simultaneously, the outstanding exothermicity (67.2 °C under the applied voltage of 5 V) makes it possible to be applied in electric heating area. The electromagnetic shielding composites prepared in this paper have good potential in the fields of precision electronic equipment and aviation systems.