Electromagnetic interference shielding properties and mechanisms of chemically reduced graphene aerogels

Graphene was recently demonstrated to exhibit excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance. In this work, ultralight (similar to 5.5 mg/cm(3)) graphene aerogels (GAs) were fabricated through assembling graphene oxide (GO) using freeze-drying followed by a chemical reduction method. The EMI shielding properties and mechanisms of GAs were systematically studied with respect to the intrinsic properties of the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets and the unique porous network. The EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of GAs was increased from 20.4 to 27.6 dB when the GO was reduced by high concentration of hydrazine vapor. The presence of more sp(2) graphitic lattice and free electrons from nitrogen atoms resulted in the enhanced EMI SE. Absorption was the dominant shielding mechanism of GAs. Compressing the highly porous GAs into compact thin films did not change the EMI SE, but shifted the dominant shielding mechanism from absorption to reflection. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.