Mechanical and EMI shielding behavior of ABS based Hybrid Composites

Abstract

The rapid development of wireless telecommunications has revolutionarily modernized the ubiquitous society, whereas it has created serious concerns on harmful effects of the electromagnetic interference (EMI) on human health and performance of commercial, military, and electronic devices, especially in the gigahertz (GHz) band range. These problems can be minimized through using EMI shielding materials, which block or shield the devices from unwanted electromagnetic waves and provide an effective solution to meet working requirements of such devices. As a shielding material, metals have been widely used to mitigate the EMI problems due to their excellent electrical conductivity and resulting effective shielding efficiency. Recently, polymer composites with conductive nanocarbons, for instance, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) , carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and MWCNTs) and graphene, have taken a growing attention over metals due to several advantages of low cost, light weight, good resistance to corrosion, and ease of processibility. In this research we used simple solution casting method in order to synthesize hybrid composites of ABS based on graphene and Barium Hexaferrite as fillers. These two phase and three phase hybrid systems are prepared using solution casting route and characterized using Wide angle X-rays diffraction (WAXD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Impedance analyzer , Ultimate tensile testing machine and Vector network analyzer (VNA) test. Barium Hexxaferrite phase is confirmed using WAXD. Graphene is dispersed evenly in the ABS polymer matrix up to 0.5 weight% but show some densification at 1 and 5 weight% which was confirmed by SEM and WAXD. The mechanical properties were enhanced in case of ABS/GN composites up to 0.5 wt % of graphene. The EMI shielding behavior of the Hybrid composite was enhanced drastically. The dielectric constant enhanced up to 84 % in case of Hybrid composites, and dielectric loss was increased by 98%. The EMI shielding value was raised up to 30 dB which indicates 99.9 % blockage of the incident wave. Considering the simplicity and versatility of solution casting method, Hybrid composites are found to be easy to manufacture and effective as well.