Silver-coated thermoplastic polyurethane hybrid granules for dual-functional elastomer composites with exceptional thermal conductive and electromagnetic interference shielding performances

Herein, we synthesized a novel filler@polymer (Ag@TPU) hybrid composed of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) granule core and silver (Ag) shell via in-situ reduction of Ag+, and afterward employed it for the fabrication of elastomer composites featuring 3D continuous filler constructions through hot-pressing molding. The composite with 15 vol% Ag shell revealed a vast thermal conductivity of 4.45 Wm- 1K-1 that was about 18-fold of pure TPU material and synchronously exhibited an exceptional electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness of 105.3 dB at a 1.0 mm thickness in the X-band range. Our work provides a straightforward strategy for the manufacture of dual-functional elastomer composites with desirable thermal conductivity and superior EMI shielding capabilities.