Scalable Flexible Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Textiles Based on MWCNTs and PEDOT:PSS

With the rise of electromagnetic radiation-based technologies, considerable attention has been drawn to developing and implementing innovative electromagnetic shielding materials. Carbon nanomaterials and conductive polymers have been appealing to both academia and industry as promising alternatives for the traditionally used metallic materials, owing to their lightness, flexibility, easy processability and resistance to corrosion, which are of special importance for textile applications. In this work, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) have been applied to cotton textile substrates by straightforward scalable dyeing and coating processes, respectively. These processes led to uniform and homogeneous coatings with distinct properties: the fabric coated with MWCNT presented higher thickness and lower loading of incorporated material than the textile coated with PEDOT:PSS (thickness: 995 μm vs. 208 μm; material loading: 9.4 wt.% vs. 70.7 wt.%). The electromagnetic shielding properties were outlined for each shielding textile in the frequency range of 5.85–18 GHz: an average shielding effectiveness of ~35.6 dB was obtained for MWCNT@tex, while PEDOT:PSS@tex reached ~38.3 dB. Thus, PEDOT:PSS provided enhanced radiation shielding with lower coating thickness, while the MWCNTs led to improved attenuation with less material usage. Shielding effectiveness values above 30 dB were obtained for both electromagnetic interference shielding textiles, which corresponds to an excellent classification for general use applications, such as casual clothing and maternity wear.