Journal
MATERIALS TODAY COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 11, Issue -, Pages 112-118Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2017.02.006
Keywords
3D printing; Carbon nanotube composite; EMI shielding; Electrical conductivity; Transparent
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) [446198-2013, RGPIN/05503-2015]
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Here we applied three-dimensional (3D) printing of conductive microstructures for the functional optimization of lightweight and semi-transparent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shields. Highly conductive 3D printable inks with electrical conductivities up to similar to 5000S m(-1) were fabricated from carbon nanotubes/polylactic acid (CNT/PLA) nanocomposites. Solvent-cast 3D printing enabled us to fabricate conductive scaffold microstructures and investigate the influence of various important structural parameters (i.e., inter-filament spacing, number of layers and printing patterns) on their transparency and EMI shielding effectiveness. The results revealed a significant improvement of the specific EMI shielding effectiveness of CNT/PLA nanocomposites printed as 3D scaffolds compared to CNT/PLA hot-pressed in solid forms (similar to 70 vs similar to 37 dB g(-1) cm(3)). The transparency of the scaffolds could vary from similar to 0% to similar to 75% by modifying their printing patterns and inter-filament spacing. To the best of our knowledge the conductivity of the fabricated ink is the highest among the other reported 3D printable polymer composite inks and this is the first reported systematic study on EMI shielding using a 3D printing technique. These results are highly beneficial for the fabrication and structural optimization of EMI shields where light and/or transparent structures are advantageous, such as in aerospace systems, portable electronic devices or smart fabrics. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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