EMI shielding and dynamic mechanical analysis of graphene oxide-carbon nanotube-acrylonitrile butadiene styrene hybrid composites

Carbon nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and their hybrid have been studied extensively. Despite having excellent properties of CNTs and graphene have not yet been fully realized in the polymer composites. During fabrication agglomeration of CNTs and restacking of graphene is a serious concern that results in the degradation of properties of nanomaterials into the final composites. To improve the dispersion of CNTs and restacking graphene, in the present research work, we focused on the hybridization of graphene oxide and CNTs. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), functionalized carbon nanotubes (FCNTs), and graphene oxide-carbon nanotubes (GCNTs) reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composites were prepared separately by vacuum filtration followed by hot compression molding. Further, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding properties of ABS composites reinforced carbon nanofillers were investigated. The dynamic mechanical properties of polymers strongly depend on the adhesion of fillers and polymer, entanglement density of polymer chains in the presence of carbon fillers. The dynamic mechanical characteristics such as storage, loss modulus, and damping factor of prepared composites were significantly affected by the incorporation of MWCNTs, FCNTs, and GCNTs. Maximum EMI shielding effectiveness of −49.6 dB was achieved for GCNT-ABS composites which were highest compared to MWCNTs-ABS composites (−38.6 dB) and FCNTs-ABS composites (−36.7 dB) in the Ku band (12.4–18 GHz). These results depict the great potential of GCNTs-ABS composites to be used in various applications of efficient heat dissipative EMI shielding materials for electronic devices.