Carbon Nanofiber/Polyaniline Composite Aerogel with Excellent Electromagnetic Interference Shielding, Low Thermal Conductivity, and Extremely Low Heat Release

Mingyi Chen; Jian Zhu; Kai Zhang; Hongkang Zhou; Yufei Gao; Jie Fan; Rouxi Chen; Hsing-Lin Wang

doi:10.1007/s40820-024-01583-2

Carbon Nanofiber/Polyaniline Composite Aerogel with Excellent Electromagnetic Interference Shielding, Low Thermal Conductivity, and Extremely Low Heat Release

Nanomicro Lett. 2024 Dec 2;17(1):80. doi: 10.1007/s40820-024-01583-2.

Authors

Mingyi Chen^#^{1

2}, Jian Zhu^#², Kai Zhang², Hongkang Zhou², Yufei Gao², Jie Fan^{3

4}, Rouxi Chen^{5

6}, Hsing-Lin Wang^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin, 300387, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China.
³ School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin, 300387, People's Republic of China. fanjie@tiangong.edu.cn.
⁴ Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Advanced Textile Composite Materials, Tiangong University, Tianjin, 300387, People's Republic of China. fanjie@tiangong.edu.cn.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China. chenrx@sustech.edu.cn.
⁶ School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China. chenrx@sustech.edu.cn.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China. wangxl3@sustech.edu.cn.
⁸ School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China. wangxl3@sustech.edu.cn.
⁹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy Materials for Electric Power, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People's Republic of China. wangxl3@sustech.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39617841
DOI: 10.1007/s40820-024-01583-2

Abstract

The rapid development of communication technology and high-frequency electronic devices has created a need for more advanced electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials. In response to this demand, a study has been conducted to develop multifunctional carbon nanofibers (CNFs)/polyaniline (PANI) aerogels with excellent electromagnetic interference shielding, flame retardancy, and thermal insulation performance. The process involved freeze-drying of electrospun CNFs and PANI nanoparticles followed by in situ growth PANI to coat the CNFs, creating the core-shell structured CNFs/PANI composite fiber and its hybrid aerogels (CP-3@PANI). The interaction between PANI and aniline (ANI) provides attachment sites, allowing additional ANI adsorption into the aerogel for in situ polymerization. This results in PANI uniformly covering the surface of the CNFs, creating a core-shell composite fiber with a flexible CNF core and PANI shell. This process enhances the utilization rate of the ANI monomer and increases the PANI content loaded onto the aerogel. Additionally, effective connections are established between the CNFs, forming a stable, conductive three-dimensional network structure. The prepared CP-3@PANI aerogels exhibit excellent EMI shielding efficiency (SE) of 85.4 dB and specific EMI SE (SE d^-1) of 791.2 dB cm³ g⁻¹ in the X-band. Due to the synergistic flame-retardant effect of CNFs, PANI, and the dopant (phytic acid), the CP-3@PANI aerogels demonstrate outstanding flame-retardant and thermal insulation properties, with a peak heat release rate (PHRR) as low as 7.8 W g⁻¹ and a total heat release of only 0.58 kJ g⁻¹. This study provides an effective strategy for preparing multifunctional integrated EMI shielding materials.

Keywords: CNFs/PANI hybrid aerogels; EMI shielding; Flame retardancy; Thermal insulation.