Effective EMI shielding behaviour of thin graphene/PMMA nanolaminates in the THz range

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that centimeter-scale CVD graphene/polymer nanolaminates exhibit exceptional EMI shielding effectiveness in the THz range, surpassing traditional flake-based composites due to their unique structure and properties.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel fabrication method for large-scale graphene/polymer nanolaminates that significantly improve EMI shielding and mechanical properties over existing flake-based composites.

Findings

Achieved 60 dB EMI shielding with 33 micron thickness

Nanolineates outperform flake-based composites in electrical/mechanical properties

Highest EMI shielding effectiveness among non-metallic synthetic materials

Abstract

The use of graphene in a form of discontinuous flakes in polymer composites limits the full exploitation of the unique properties of graphene, thus requiring high filler loadings for achieving - for example - satisfactory electrical and mechanical properties. Herein centimetre-scale CVD graphene/polymer nanolaminates have been produced by using an iterative 'lift-off/float-on' process and have been found to outperform, for the same graphene content, state-of-the-art flake-based graphene polymer composites in terms of mechanical reinforcement and electrical properties. Most importantly these thin laminate materials show a high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness, reaching 60 dB for a small thickness of 33 micron, and an absolute EMI shielding effectiveness close to 3* 10 ^5 dB cm ^2 g^-1 which is amongst the highest values for synthetic, non-metallic materials produced to date.