Thin copper hybrid structures by spray-assisted layer by layer chemical deposition on fabric surfaces for electromagnetic interference shielding

Abstract In this study, spray-assisted layer by layer chemical deposition was used for the preparation of a thin Cu layer with micro-nano structures on carbon fiber fabrics (CFFs). By adjusting the spraying passes, flocculent layered coarse structures composed of Cu nanoparticles have uniformly been constructed successfully. These copper-coated carbon fiber fabrics (Cu@CFFs) showed excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE), and the total SE of Cu@CFFs-100 was about 20 dB higher than the original carbon fiber fabrics. In addition to the reflection and adsorption effectiveness results, the high SE mainly depends on the outstanding conductivity of the carbon fiber fabric endowed by the deposited nanosized copper and enhanced the reflection loss of the incident electromagnetic wave and the multiple reflections of the internal network structure. Moreover, the stability and multilayer overlay of Cu@CFFs results show the possibility of applying spray-assisted layer by layer chemical deposition to produce EMI shielding materials.