Leveraging BaFe12O19/PANI Nanocomposite Incorporated Cotton Fabric as an Effective EMI Shielding Flexible Material for X‑band Frequency

• Published in: ACS applied electronic materials 2024-04, Vol.6 (4), p.2242-2257
• Main Authors: Chopra, Anuj, Arya, Nishchal, Amir, Md, Bairagi, Satyaranjan, Baykal, Abdulhadi, Khan, Gufran Sayeed, Ali, Syed Wazed
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2637-6113; 2637-6113
• DOI: 10.1021/acsaelm.3c01715

This study focuses on addressing the growing concern of electromagnetic interference (EMI) pollution caused by the widespread use of electronic devices. An effective shielding material using barium hexaferrite nanoparticles {BaFe12O19 (BaM) NHFs} and its nanocomposite (NC) with polyaniline (PANI) applied to cotton fabric was developed. The BaM NHFs and BaM/PANI NCs were synthesized by using modified sol–gel and self-assembly coating methods. The hexagonal structure of BaM NHFs was confirmed through powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD) analysis. High-resolution electron microscopy was utilized to study the morphology of BaM/PANI NCs. The ferromagnetic properties of the prepared samples were investigated by using alternating gradient magnetometry. The BaM NHFs and BaM/PANI NCs were treated with the cotton fabric using the pad-dry-cure method with low loading percentages of 0.1 and 1% add-on to the fabric’s weight. The treated fabrics were then evaluated for their EMI shielding behavior. Remarkably, the fabric treated with BaM/PANI NCs demonstrated excellent EMI shielding effectiveness in the X-band frequency region, even at a lower concentration of 1% compared with pure PANI and BaM NHFs. This suggests that further increasing the loading percentage of BaM/PANI NCs on cotton fabric could significantly enhance the shielding performance for various important applications.