Influence of washability treatment on the electromagnetic interference shielding material’s comfort properties

This paper investigated the washability and comfort properties of a kind of electromagnetic interference shielding material (Meftex10) with and without the parylene C coating. Parylene C can form a uniform protective film on the fabric and improve different properties of the fabric. In this paper, it will be used to improve the washability of electromagnetic interference shielding material. Through a large number of experiments, it can be determined that the parylene C coated samples have a significant improvement in washability compared to the uncoated samples. When the sample’s parylene C coating content arrives at 33.4 g/m², its electromagnetic shielding effectiveness still remains around 65% after 10 times washing cycles. Conversely, as the content of the parylene C coating increases, the air permeability of the samples as well as the water vapor permeability will decrease. The reason is that the parylene C coating closes some of the pores, which affects air and water vapor transport through the material. In addition to this, it can be concluded that the thermal conductivities of samples increase with increasing parylene C coating contents. The above phenomenon is caused by the following two aspects: The parylene C coating material will reduce the spaces between the fibers and yarns by partially filling the pores, leading to less still air inside and the fabric has a greater capacity for heat transfer; Parylene C has a higher thermal conductivity than the electromagnetic interference shielding material (Meftex10).