Facile production of binary polymer/carbonic nanofiller‐based biodegradable electromagnetic interference shield films with low electrical percolation threshold

Abstract

AbstractInterference of electromagnetic (EM) radiation generated from different electronic gadgets produces noises diminishing their performance. So, shielding of EM interferences (EMI) is necessary to achieve noise‐free performance from electronic gadgets. In the present work, we have produced thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/polybutylene adipate‐co‐terephthalate (PBAT) based biodegradable binary polymeric blend and incorporated different carbonic nanofillers such as Vulcan XC‐72 conductive carbon black (VCB) and multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) into it employing solvent mixing and casting technique and studied the morphology of polymer blends, EMI shielding effectiveness in X‐band of the EM spectrum as well as mechanical performance, electrical performance, and biodegradability of polymer nanocomposites. The selective nanofiller distribution in the low viscous PBAT phase of the “co‐continuous” binary blend is found to achieve a “lower electrical percolation threshold” compared to neat polymer nanocomposites. For each of the TPU/PBAT/VCB and TPU/PBAT/MWCNT nanocomposites, electrical percolation threshold of around 12.5 and 5 wt% respectively has been achieved successfully. Nanocomposite sheets with a thickness of 1.0 mm and loading of 30 wt% of VCB and 15 wt% of MWCNT gave EMI shielding values of −25 dB and −28 dB respectively at a frequency of 8.4 GHz.