Flexible Electromagnetic Shielding Material Using Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Coated Cotton Fabric

The present work focuses on the development of cotton fabric with multi-walled carbon nanotube coating (CMC) through a dip and dry process. The influence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) concentration on transmission, reflection, and absorption properties, which leads to an estimation of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, was also studied. The merits of MWCNTs coating on the cotton fabric were evaluated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and surface resistivity. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy result supports the bonding between MWCNTs and cotton fabric. The significant increase of 98.9% of EMI shielding for the highest MWCNTs weight percentage (22.23 wt%) was attributed due to the well-interconnected network of MWCNTs. The shielding mechanism in the high wt% MWCNTs samples is dominated by both reflection and absorption properties.