A study on development of silicone rubber with conductive carbon, polyaniline, MWCNT composite for EMI shielding

Abstract

The multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were grown by CVD method and using Ni impregnated zeolite as a substrate. The prepared MWCNT diameter varied from 10 to 60 nm and length in few microns. The silicone rubber (SR) was mixed well with conductive carbon, Polyaniline (PANI) and MWCNTs in two roll mill. The prepared silicone rubber materials were fabricated in the form of sheets with dimensions of 200 mm × 200 mm × 2 mm by using compression molding technique. The prepared sheets were subjected for EMI shielding efficiency measurements at low frequency (< 1.5 GHz) and high frequency range from 1 GHz to 18 GHz. At high frequency the shielding effectiveness of the Conducting Silicone Rubber and Conductive silicone rubber with MWCNT was found to be 24 dB and 48 dB. The volume resistivity measurements were also carried for all the prepared silicone rubber sheets, the results reveals that SR + MWCNT, CSR + MWCNT composites shows volume resistivity 4032 and 20.7 Ω.cm respectively. This confirms the conductivity of CSR + MWCNT is enough to exhibit good Shielding Effectiveness.