Electromagnetic interference shielding properties of polyvinylchloride (PVC), barium titanate (BaTiO3) and nickel oxide (NiO) based nanocomposites

Polyvinylchloride/barium titanate/nickel oxide (PVC/BaTiO3/NiO) nanocomposite films were prepared by solvent casting method and their electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) was investigated with respect to variable nanofiller loadings. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies were carried out to ascertain surface morphology, functional groups and dispersion state of the nanofillers in the nanocomposites. The interfacial interaction between PVC, BaTiO3 and NiO at different nanofiller loadings was evident from FTIR analysis while SEM micrographs show uniform dispersion of nanofillers in the polymer matrix. The EMI SE of PVC/BaTiO3/NiO nanocomposites in the frequency range 12 GHz-18 GHz (Ku-band) were investigated using vector network analyzer. The EMI SE studies revealed the impact of nanofiller addition on the conductivity and the EMI SE of the nanocomposites yielding maximum EMI SE of -18.7 dB.