Polyvinylidene fluoride—An advanced smart polymer for electromagnetic interference shielding applications—A novel review

Abstract

AbstractEmerging technology and modernization have become a worldwide threat to human life in all aspects. Worldwide, all countries are in the race to develop the most advanced electronic devices and gadgets as they reflect the country's superiority and economic development. Specialists have forecasted that during and after the pandemic, the addiction toward modern gadgets have increased by 40% among the people irrespective of age. A few researchers have reported that the world economy is dependent on and dominated by countries manufacturing semiconductors, mobiles, electronic chips, and so on. People started sensing that modern devices are like a boon, as their lives seem to be more connected and comfortable with all their needs and wants being fulfilled at their doorsteps. But this boon is slowly whirling as a severe threat to human lives. Due to this rapid usage of electronic devices, electromagnetic interference (EMI) is drastically growing, which is considered a global warning issue for commercial and biological systems. So advanced countries have decided to make EMI shielding a compulsory entity to be implemented in all advanced electronic devices. Though traditional materials like metals and carbon allotropes have excellent shielding properties, they cannot cope with today's mass production of modern devices. Thus, researchers had to find a suitable substitute material that should possess properties such as sustainability and biocompatibility to overcome problems faced by the conventional materials. Thus, polymers have come into the world of EMI shielding applications. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a non‐conductive polymer from the family of Fluorocarbons, is creating history in the field of EMI shielding applications. PVDF astonished researchers with its versatile features, such as light weight, flexibility, and easy processibility with excellent dielectric and piezoelectric properties. Though they are poor in electrically conductive properties, incorporating metals, carbon allotropes, and metal oxides as fillers make them superior to the existing conventional materials. Thus, the main objective of this review article is to highlight the uniqueness of PVDF as an advanced polymer for EMI shielding applications. It has been noted that PVDF is more suitable for EMI shielding in X, K, and Ku band frequencies. But overall, we noticed that the performance of PVDF has a great impact by incorporating a combination of metal and carbon allotrope enhances the shielding effectiveness up to 65 dB in the Ku‐band (Kurz‐under) frequency band range of (12–18 GHz).