Multispectral electromagnetic shielding and mechanical properties of carbon fabrics reinforced by silver deposition

Abstract

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) has become a widespread modern environmental pollutant. There is an essential need for practical and applicable materials for its attenuation. Therefore, the presented research has focused on metallization of carbon fabric using the silver conductive complex solution to enhance the surface conductivity and mechanical properties of the fabric. With this amplification and improving the mentioned characteristics, lightweight and flexible modified carbon fibers can be applied in many environments. The modification has been performed in three steps: the silver conductive complex synthesis, carbon fabric immersion into a silver complex solution, treating with temperature for silver deposition by annealing. The method used for the metallization of carbon fabrics surface does not require expensive and toxic chemicals or electricity, making the process more ecologically and economically acceptable. One of the advantages of using the method for surface modification is the possibility of usage for other materials, not only for textiles and foils. The examination of the surface structure, electrical, EMI shielding characteristics, and mechanical properties of carbon fabrics modified by silver deposition contributes to the determination of multifunctional properties of materials. Also, the dependence on the improvement of multispectral electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) characteristics and mechanical properties of materials on the number of cycles has been determined. The most effective material was carbon fabric modified by five cycles, and average attenuation at an L and S bands was 49.67 dB, and a part of C and full X band was 51.07 dB, caused by better coverage by silver particles, increased density and porosity of deposited layer. Increasing the number of silver deposition cycles improves the physical properties of the modified carbon fabrics, where after five cycles the highest maximum force has been measured (2.26 kN). The material's morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy. The crystallographic phases of sintered particles were determined by X-ray diffraction. The crystallographic phases of sintered particles were determined by X-ray diffraction.