Structural Chemistry & Crystallography Communication

Abstract

Electromagnetic (EM) pollution is ubiquitous and has soared to a great extent in the past few decades. The use of plant-sourced cellulose nanofibers to fabricate sustainable and high-performance electromagnetic shielding materials is foreseen as a green solution by the electronics industry to address this unseen pollutant. In this view, we report a facile and environmentally benign strategy to synthesize ultra-light and highly conductive aerogels derived from cellulose nanofibers (CNF) decorated with polyaniline (PANI) via a simple in-situ polymerization and subsequent freeze-drying process devoid of any volatile organic solvents. The obtained conductive aerogels exhibited a density as low as 0.01925 g/cc with a maximum EMI shielding value of -32 dB in the X band region. These porous shields demonstrated strong microwave absorption behavior (95%) with minimal reflection (5%) coupled with a high specific EMI SE value ~1667 dB.cm3.g-1 which makes these aerogels a potential candidate for use in telecommunication, military and defense applications.