Facile Fabrication of PBS/CNTs Nanocomposite Foam for Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

In order to reduce the pollutants of environment and electromagnetic waves, environment friendly polymer foams with outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding are imminently required. In this paper, a kind of electromagnetic shielding, biodegradable nanocomposite foam was fabricated by blending poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) followed by foaming with supercritical CO2. The crystallization temperature and melting temperature of PBS/CNTs nanocomposites with 4 wt % of CNTs increased remarkably by 6 degrees C and 3.1 degrees C compared with that of pure PBS and a double crystal melting peak of various PBS samples appeared in DSC curves. Increasing the CNT content from 0 to 4 wt % leads to an increase of approximately 3 orders of magnitude in storage modulus and nearly 9 orders of magnitude in enhancement of electrical properties. Furthermore, CNTs endowed PBS nanocomposite foam with adjustable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding property, giving a specific EMI shielding effectiveness of 28.5 dB cm(3)/g. This study provides a promising methodology for preparing biodegradable, lightweight PBS/CNTs foam with outstanding electromagnetic shielding properties.

Automated summary

In this paper, a biodegradable nanocomposite foam with outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding was fabricated by blending poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) followed by foaming with supercritical CO2. The addition of CNTs significantly improved the crystallization temperature and melting temperature of PBS nanocomposites, as well as enhanced the electrical properties. The CNTs also endowed the PBS foam with adjustable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding property.