Microwave shielding behaviour of polypyrrole impregnated fabrics

This paper describe the comparison of polypyrrole (PPy) impregnated different textile fabrics for EMI shielding application. For this purpose four different wearable fabrics of cotton, polyester, nylon and cotton lycra were chosen. All the fabrics were impregnated by in-situ polymerization of pyrrole. Up-to four impregnations were carried out to analyze the effect of number of impregnations on EMI shielding properties of chosen fabrics. Morphology of the coated fabrics was analyzed through scanning electron microscope (SEM). Structural properties were analyzed by XRD. Thermal stability of fabrics was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Electrical conductivity was measured through four point probe low resistance meter. Electromagnetic shielding and dielectric properties of fabrics were analyzed by vector network analyzer (VNA). It was found that cotton lycra fabrics had highest conductivity (similar to 3.92 x10(-1) S/cm) and EMI shielding value (-26 dB) among all the selected fabrics.