A Holistic Approach to Evaluate EMI Shielding Characteristics of Carbon Nanotube-based Polymer Composites

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology combining an Ant Colony Optimization algorithm and a 3D percolation model to evaluate the electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of SWCNT/polymer nanocomposites, considering various microstructural factors.

Contribution

It presents a novel integrated approach for predicting SE of nanocomposites using advanced modeling and optimization techniques, accounting for microstructural inhomogeneities.

Findings

The ACO algorithm accurately predicts electrical conductivity based on SWCNT concentration.

The 3D percolation model captures the effects of SWCNT connectivity on SE.

Inhomogeneous SWCNT distributions significantly influence shielding performance.

Abstract

The work presents a comprehensive methodology to determine the Shielding Effectiveness (SE) of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)/polymer nanocomposites. Here, an algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) was employed to determine the electrical conductivity ({\sigma}) of these nanocomposites as a function of SWCNT concentration. Then, these {\sigma} values were used to compute the SE values as a function of frequency and concentration. Specifically, a pseudo three-dimensional (3D) percolation model was developed to study the effects of random connectivity of SWCNTs to one another on the {\sigma} values of the nanocomposites. Both intrinsic and tunneling resistances were taken into account. The consequences of the presence of both well-exfoliated and aggregated SWCNTs with varying lengths distributed inhomogeneously on {\sigma} and SE values were investigated.