Electromagnetic wave shielding effectiveness of the cotton fabrics functionalized with rGO and rGO-SmVO4

Abstract

Due to a high permanent magnetization and the stability of the permanent state, the samarium (Sm) based materials can be a potential novel class of electromagnetic shielding (EMI) materials [1]. In this work, the dispersions of graphene oxide (GO) reduced (rGO) by L-ascorbic acid (AA), and nanoparticles of samarium vanadate (SmVO4 ) were used for the continuous dyeing of cotton fabrics into 20 layers. A Keysight P5008A vector network analyzer was used to investigate the electromagnetic wave shielding effectiveness (EMW SE) of the cotton fabrics functionalized with rGO and rGO-SmVO4 . Measurements were conducted with a microwave coaxial probing set-up in the 6.5 GHz - 40 GHz frequency range. Previous testing showed that cotton fabric cannot block the propagation of EMW in the 8-12 GHz range. In the 6.5 - 40 GHz range, EMI SE of both textiles is above 77%. An average EMI SE for cotton-rGO is 14.1±1.9 dB, and cotton-rGO-SmVO4 is 14.7±2.0 dB. Results indicated that cotton functionalized with rGO showed outstanding shielding effectiveness in the wide frequency range. Furthermore, functionalization with magnetic rare-earth-based nanoparticles enhanced the ability of the fabric to block EMWs in the tested range.