Study of the substrate surface treatment of flexible polypyrrole-silver composite films on EMI shielding effectiveness: theoretical and experimental investigation

Abstract

Abstract Conductive flexible polypyrrole-silver (PPy-Ag) composite films were prepared on Biaxial Oriented Polyethylene Terephthalate (BOPET) substrate with surfaces treated by (3-aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane (APTMS). The surface treatment was carried out to improve the adhesion, morphology, and electrical properties of the deposited film to enhance the Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Effectiveness (EMI-SE). APTMS grafting on the BOPET substrate was confirmed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) analyses. All structural, morphological, and electrical features of PPy-Ag raised from different AgNO3 molar ratio were investigated. The shielding effectiveness properties, experimentally determined for the synthesized PPy-Ag films were compared to those simulated analytically and numerically based on the transmission line matrix method (TLM). Both analytical and numerical models showed a good agreement with experimental measurements. The obtained results confirmed that the PPy-Ag films of 0.5 M/1 M molar ratio exhibits high EMI shielding performance of about 21 dB along with an electrical conductivity of 47 S/cm. Therefore, the treated surface flexible PPy-Ag films can be considered as potential candidate for high frequency electromagnetic interference shielding applications.