Abstract
A textile material’s electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness mainly depends on the material’s electrical conductivity and porosity. Enhancing the conductivity of the material surface can effectively improve the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. However, the use of highly conductive materials increases production cost, and limits the enhancement of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. This work aims to improve the EMI shielding effectiveness (EMSE) by using an ultrathin multilayer structure and the air-permeable textile MEFTEX. MEFTEX is a copper-coated non-woven ultrathin fabric. The single-layer MEFTEX SE test results show that the higher its mass per unit area (MEFTEX 30), the better its SE property between 56.14 dB and 62.53 dB in the frequency band 30 MHz–1.5 GHz. Through comparative testing of three groups samples, a higher electromagnetic shielding effect is obtained via multilayer structures due to the increase in thickness and decrease of volume electrical resistivity. Compared to a single layer, the EMI shielding effectiveness of five layers of MEFTEX increases by 44.27–83.8%. Due to its ultrathin and porous structure, and considering the balance from porosity and SE, MEFTEX 10 with three to four layers can still maintain air permeability from 2942 L/m2/s–3658 L/m2/s.
Highlights
Accepted: 24 November 2021The influence of electromagnetic waves on human health is contentious, but to date, scientific consensus has been that excessive electromagnetic radiation impacts human health [1,2]
The purpose of this study is to investigate if the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding fabrics by using multilayer combination and mutually aligned with each other, fulfills the expectation of increased shielding effectiveness (SE) in the frequency band from 30 MHz to 1.5 GHz, which is specified in ASTM
The structure of single-layer MEFTEX 10, MEFTEX 20, and MEFTEX 30 was observed from SEM images (Figure 4)
Summary
The influence of electromagnetic waves on human health is contentious, but to date, scientific consensus has been that excessive electromagnetic radiation impacts human health [1,2]. Radiation due to electromagnetic effects causes unnecessary electromagnetic interference [3]. The electric field in radiation can interact with the electrons in the metal conductors, and this interference can cause some sensitive electronics to malfunction [4]. To prevent the extra electromagnetic wave, due to the electrostatic equipotentiality of metals, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding material can effectively shield external electric fields from electromagnetic interference. The research on metal-coated textiles has proven the effectiveness of EMI shielding in many applications. Compared to other EMI shielding materials like metal, carbon-polymer composites, and nanofibrils, conductive textiles provide effective
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