A particular interfacial strategy in PVDF/OBC/MWCNT nanocomposites for high dielectric performance and electromagnetic interference shielding

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were easily dispersed at the interface of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) and ethylene-alpha-octene block copolymer (OBC) blend by melt compounding and the nanocomposites exhibited enhanced dielectric performance, electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) and balanced mechanical performance. Through the simple, efficient and scalable interfacial strategy to disperse MWCNTs at the interface of PVDF and OBC phases, the accumulation of charge carriers at the interfaces and strong interfacial polarization effect can be achieved. At low frequency, PVDF/OBC/MWNCT nanocomposite exhibits high dielectric permittivity (753.8) and low dielectric loss tangent (0.8), offering great potential in energy storage applications. Simultaneously, in X-band range, PVDF/OBC/MWNCT nanocomposite shows high EMI SE of around 34 dB which is higher than the industrial requirement when the content of MWCNTs is as low as 2.7 vol.%. This study provides possibilities to realize high-performance polymer nanocomposites via the particular interfacial structure through one-step melt processing.(C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.