Preparation and properties of reduced graphene oxide-carbon nanotubes aerogel/cotton flexible composite fabric with electromagnetic shielding function

The electromagnetic pollution has become a serious problem with the rapid development of electromagnetic industry. The present work prepared an electromagnetic interference (EMI) functional composite fabric. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) aerogel with three-dimensional (3-D) architecture were coated to the cotton fabric with the assistance of waterborne polyurethane (WPU). The structure of graphene aerogel was affected by the amount of CNTs. Small amount of CNTs is helpful to minish the pore size of aerogel and thus improve the EMI value. However, it has been shown that excess CNTs will destroy the 3-D architecture of graphene aerogel. Result shows that the EMI shielding effectiveness exceeded 35 dB when the weight ratio of rGO and CNTs was 7:3, and EMI value of the corresponding composite fabric samples reached 34 dB. Consequently, excellent EMI results were obtained by the unique 3-D rGO-CNTs aerogel in the case of a small nano-carbon material amount. The present work will be expected to make contributions to the practical application of rGO-CNTs aerogel.