Shielding effectiveness of high-polymer short-staple-based fabric implanted with the metamaterial structure of “split ring resonator”

Purpose Electromagnetic shielding (EMS) fabrics composed of cotton, polyester and other high-polymer short-staple fibers are widely utilized in various fields. However, the inevitable pores in these fabrics lead to the leakage of electromagnetic waves, which severely diminishes the fabric’s shielding effectiveness (SE). To address this issue, this paper proposes the implantation of a metamaterial structure known as the “split ring resonator (SRR)” into the fabric. Design/methodology/approach Firstly, the types and principles of SRRs are analyzed. Through electromagnetic simulation and emulation, the effectiveness of SRRs in dissipating electromagnetic waves is confirmed. By selecting different embroidery methods, various shapes of SRRs are implanted into the fabric. Subsequently, through testing and analysis of sample fabrics embroidered with SRRs, it is concluded that implanting appropriate SRRs into pure cotton fabrics and cotton/polyester/stainless steel-blended EMS fabrics can effectively impart or enhance the SE of these fabrics. Findings For pure cotton fabric without inherent SE, the peak SE value can reach over 30 dB within the 6.57 GHz–7 GHz frequency band, and the minimum SE is greater than 10 dB in the 7 GHz–9.99 GHz frequency band. For the cotton/polyester/stainless steel-blended EMS fabric, the improvement in SE across all frequency bands exceeds 10 dB, averaging around 15.6 dB. The circular type SRR demonstrates the most significant improvement in fabric SE. When the substrate is composed of pure cotton or a cotton/polyester/stainless steel blend, the circular SRRs provide an average enhancement of more than 4 dB and 6 dB, respectively, than other shapes. The fewer the holes created by the implantation method, the higher the SE of the fabric after SRR implantation, with the invisible embroidery technique being the most effective. It improves the fabric’s SE by an average of about 2 dB more than flat embroidery and can be up to an average of around 6 dB higher than the backstitch embroidery technique. For every 0.2 cm increase in the size of the SRRs, the average SE increases by about 4 dB, and for every 0.5 cm increase in the spacing between them, the fabric’s SE decreases by an average of more than 2.7 dB. Originality/value This paper offers a novel approach to counteract the issue of pores reducing the SE of EMS fabrics and provides a new method for developing lightweight, thin, low-cost and high-performance EMS fabric composite materials.