Carbon nanotube films embedded with Cu@C nanocubes for electromagnetic interference shielding

Flexible carbon tube films for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding are assembled by mixing the well-aligned Cu@C core-shell nanocubes with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The Cu@C core-shell nanocubes are achieved by the thermal pyrolysis of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coating on Cu2O nanocubes. With the optimal PVP concentration of 1.5 mg/mL, the Cu@C/MWCNTs composite film with ultra-thin thickness (52.2 mu m) displays good conductivity of 12.5 S cm(-1) and excellent specific EMI shielding value of 510.73 dB mm(-1), which is higher than the pure MWCNTs film (439.50 dB mm(-1)) under the same weight condition. Moreover, the 1.5 mg/mL-Cu@C/MWCNTs composite film exhibits highly mechanical repeatability after being bended for 10,000 cycles. The carbon layers protecting metal nanoparticles can partly replace precious carbon nanotubes to construction highly flexible composite film with anticipated electrical conductivity, which have a good application prospect for thin, lightweight and flexible EMI shielding fields.