Interface sintering engineered superhydrophobic and durable nanofiber composite for high-performance electromagnetic interference shielding

Abstract Electrically conductive fibric composites (CFCs) have been widely used as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials; however, it is still difficult to achieve combination of strong interfacial adhesion, outstanding water proof performance, multi-functionality and superb EMI shielding performance for the CFCs. Herein, we report a novel “photo-thermally induced interfacial sintering” method to prepare flexible and superhydrophobic CFCs with excellent interfacial adhesion. The CFC possesses dual conductive network composed of carbon nanofiber and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and a conductivity of 112.1 S/cm, imparting to the material excellent Joule heating performance, revealing an large SE and SSE (59.4 dB and 333.9 dB mm−1) of the CFC in the X band, respectively. In addition, the CFC can maintain its superhydrophobicity, high conductivity and excellent EMI shielding performance after cyclic abrasion, stretching and ultrasonication washing. This “interfacial sintering” strategy provides a new way to fabricating multi-functional and durable conductive polymer composite.