Effect of ambient plasma treatment on single-walled carbon nanotubes-based epoxy/fabrics for improving fracture toughness and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness

The development of flexible, lightweight, thin, and high-performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials is a key challenge for dealing with the issue of increasing susceptibility in modern devices. Recently, agglomeration of carbon nanotubes (CNT) is a critical issue in CNT-based multi-scale composites used as flexible and lightweight EMI material. Herein, a ambient plasma-treatment is applied to increase the interfacial adhesion between single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and the epoxy matrix, with control of dispersibility via an increase in the surface free energy and polar components. In spite of a low content of SWNTs, the highly dispersed conductive network thereof provides the prepared multi-scale composites with good conductivity and a high EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of ~45.2 dB at a thickness of 0.6 mm, along with favorable flexibility and a remarkable fracture toughness (K_IC) of ~36.0 MPa.m^1/2.