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Nano Research 2023, 16(8): 11411-11421 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5884-7
Research Article | Issue | Published: 15 July 2023

Polymer composites designed with 3D fibrous CNT “tracks” achieving excellent thermal conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency

Show Author's Information Gui Yang,  Liangchun Zhou,  Mingjie Wang,  Tiantian Xiang,  Duo Pan,  Jingzhan Zhu,  Fengmei Su( ),  Youxin Ji,  Chuntai Liu( ),  Changyu Shen
National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, The Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Mold of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Keywords:
composites, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, multi-source driven thermal management, three-dimensional (3D) fibrous carbon nanotube (CNT) “tracks”, in-plane thermal conductivity (TC)
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Yang G, Zhou L, Wang M, et al. Polymer composites designed with 3D fibrous CNT “tracks” achieving excellent thermal conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency. Nano Research, 2023, 16(8): 11411-11421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5884-7
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The rapid improvement in the running speed, transmission efficiency, and power density of miniaturized devices means that multifunctional flexible composites with excellent thermal management capability and high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance are urgently required. Here, inspired by the fibrous pathways of the human nervous system, a “core–sheath” fibers structured strategy was proposed to prepare thermoplastic polyurethane/polydopamine/carbon nanotube (TPU/PDA/CNT) composites film with thermal management capability and EMI shielding performance. Firstly, TPU@PDA@CNT fibers with CNT shell were prepared by a facile polydopamine-assisted coating on electrospun TPU fibers. Subsequently, TPU/PDA/CNT composites with three-dimensional (3D) fibrous CNT “tracks” are obtained by a hot-pressing process, where CNTs distributed on adjacent fibers are compactly contacted. The fabricated TPU/PDA/CNT composites exhibit a high in-plane thermal conductivity (TC) of 9.6 W/(m·K) at low CNT loading of 7.6 wt.%. In addition, it also presents excellent mechanical properties and excellent EMI shielding effectiveness of 48.3 dB as well as multi-source driven thermal management capabilities. Hence, this study provides a simple yet scalable technique to prepare composites with advanced thermal management and EMI shielding performance to develop new-generation wireless communication technologies and portable intelligent electronic devices.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Polymer composites designed with 3D fibrous CNT “tracks” achieving excellent thermal conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency

Show Author's information Gui Yang, Liangchun Zhou, Mingjie Wang, Tiantian Xiang, Duo Pan, Jingzhan Zhu, Fengmei Su( ), Youxin Ji, Chuntai Liu( ), Changyu Shen
National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, The Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Mold of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, China

Abstract

The rapid improvement in the running speed, transmission efficiency, and power density of miniaturized devices means that multifunctional flexible composites with excellent thermal management capability and high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance are urgently required. Here, inspired by the fibrous pathways of the human nervous system, a “core–sheath” fibers structured strategy was proposed to prepare thermoplastic polyurethane/polydopamine/carbon nanotube (TPU/PDA/CNT) composites film with thermal management capability and EMI shielding performance. Firstly, TPU@PDA@CNT fibers with CNT shell were prepared by a facile polydopamine-assisted coating on electrospun TPU fibers. Subsequently, TPU/PDA/CNT composites with three-dimensional (3D) fibrous CNT “tracks” are obtained by a hot-pressing process, where CNTs distributed on adjacent fibers are compactly contacted. The fabricated TPU/PDA/CNT composites exhibit a high in-plane thermal conductivity (TC) of 9.6 W/(m·K) at low CNT loading of 7.6 wt.%. In addition, it also presents excellent mechanical properties and excellent EMI shielding effectiveness of 48.3 dB as well as multi-source driven thermal management capabilities. Hence, this study provides a simple yet scalable technique to prepare composites with advanced thermal management and EMI shielding performance to develop new-generation wireless communication technologies and portable intelligent electronic devices.

Keywords: composites, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, multi-source driven thermal management, three-dimensional (3D) fibrous carbon nanotube (CNT) “tracks”, in-plane thermal conductivity (TC)

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 25 April 2023
Revised: 28 May 2023
Accepted: 29 May 2023
Published: 15 July 2023
Issue date: August 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21704096, 51703217, and 12072325) and the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (No. 20A430028).

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