Recent progress of electrospun nanofibrous materials for electromagnetic interference shielding

Abstract

With the sharp development of communication and electric devices, waste electromagnetic (EM) radiation is usually produced, which has a significant negative impact on human health. Thus it is urgent to design high-performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials. The electrospun one-dimensional (1D) nanofibrous materials own inherent characteristics for the EMI shielding application, including light weight, ultrathinness, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, porous feature, large specific area, easy processability, tunable chemical and physical properties. In this review, we firstly describe the basic EMI shielding mechanism. Owing to the insulating nature for most of the electrospun polymeric nanofibers, additional EMI additives are usually necessary. Thus we will discuss the influence of different types of EMI additives on their shielding performance in the following. In addition, the influencing factors of varied architectures such as core-shell, hierarchical, and orientation structures from electrospinning technology are summarized. Furthermore, the multi-functionality of the EMI shielding materials based on the electrospun nanofibrous materials with thermal insulation, superhydrophobicity, self-healing, smart response, and transparency is introduced to meet the requirements of real applications. Finally, the prospects in the future challenges and guidelines are provided to design more novel functional electrospun nanofibrous materials for EMI shielding application.