Enhanced EM shielding: Synergetic effect of zirconium ferrite, MWCNT, and graphene in LDPE polymer composite to counteract electromagnetic radiation in the X-band range

Abstract

In this work, we present a study on the evaluation of electromagnetic (EM) shielding performance using low-density polyethylene (LDPE) polymer composite as an EM wave-absorbing material in the X-band range. Using magnetic and conducting fillers is proven to enhance the shielding performance of the composite polymer. In this study, we show that the use of zirconium ferrite (ZrFe2O4) as magnetic filler and multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/ graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) as conductive fillers exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave-absorbing properties in the X-band range. Fillers and the polymer matrix are characterized by various techniques such as XRD, SEM, color mapping, EDAX, etc. Systematic optimization of the composition of LDPE polymer composite with varying ZrFe2O4 and conducting fillers are carried. The results showed that a composite with 5 wt% displayed enhanced EMI shielding in X-band (8.2–12.4 GHz) within the concentrations studied. For the optimized composite highest shielding effectiveness being 58.57 dB (99.9936 %) at 10.3 GHz is recorded. The shielding mechanism and dominate shielding phenomena are evaluated by calculating coefficients of absorption, reflection and transmittance. The findings of this study show that the use of ZrFe2O4 has excellent potential as a magnetic filler in polymer-based composites for EMI shielding applications.