Graphene–Polyurethane Coatings for Deformable Conductors and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

Electrically conductive, polymeric materials that maintain their conductivity even when under significant mechanical deformation are needed for actuator electrodes, conformable electromagnetic shielding, stretchable tactile sensors and flexible energy storage. The challenge for these materials is that the percolated, electrically conductive networks tend to separate even at low strains, leading to significant piezoresistance. Herein, deformable conductors were fabricated by spray-coating a nitrile substrate with a graphene-elastomer solution. The coatings showed only slight increase in electrical resistance after thousands of bending cycles and repeated folding-unfolding events. The deformable conductors doubled their electrical resistance at 12% strain and were washable without changing their electrical properties. The conductivity-strain behaviour was modelled by considering the nanofiller separation upon deformation. To boost the conductivity at higher strains, the production process was adapted by stretching the nitrile substrate before spraying, after which it was released. This adaption meant that the electrical resistance doubled at 25 % strain. The electrical resistance was found sufficiently low to give a 1.9 dB/{\mu}m shielding in the 8-12 GHz electromagnetic band. The physical and electrical properties, including the EM screening, of the flexible conductors, were found to deteriorate upon cycling but could be recovered through reheating the coating.