Electromagnetic Wave Absorbing Properties of Cotton Fabric with Carbon Nanotubes Coating

In order to endow cotton fabric with the electromagnetic shielding property while preserving comfort and softness, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were coated onto NaOH pretreated fabrics via a binder-free dip-coating approach. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Infrared spectroscopy were utilised to investigate the surface morphology and modification of the CNT functionalised fabrics. The effects of the number of dip-coatings, the concentration of carbon nanotubes, and the impregnation temperature on electrical conductivity, electromagnetic (EM) shielding effectiveness (SE), and wave absorbing efficiency of cotton fabrics were evaluated, respectively. The SE value of the CNT functionalised cotton fabrics increased with the dip-coating time and reached 16.5 dB after CNT dip-coating ten times, which indicates that 97.76% of the electromagnetic wave was shielded. Meanwhile, by adding layers of stacking fabrics, the SE of CNT coated fabrics was further improved to 26.4 dB. The shielding mechanism was also studied by comparing its reflection and absorption behaviour, which demonstrates that 65.7% of the electromagnetic wave was absorbed.