Highly conductive graphene fiber textile for electromagnetic interference shielding

Abstract

Textiles with excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding properties are highly desirable to prevent interference between electronic devices and ensure their stable service in this era of serious electromagnetic radiation. However, prevalent method to prepare EMI shielding textiles focused on decorating conductive nanomaterials onto insulative textile, limiting the performance of textiles. Here, we directly weave highly conductive graphene fiber (GF) tows to obtain a GF textile with high EMI shielding performance. The electrical conductivity of GFs is improved by the restored conjugate structure and optimized crystallinity through efficient thermal annealing. An X-band EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) for GF textile of more than 90 dB is achieved owing to the high electrical conductivity of 8.5 × 105 S m−1 of GF. Overlapping two layers of textile weaved by GF yields an SE of more than 120 dB. Moreover, the woven GF textiles exhibit excellent durability of bending and pressing. Combined with the outstanding EMI shielding performance, the GF textiles show great potential for applications in wearable devices, communication, defense, and the Internet of Things.