Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.104.204.161 On: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:35:42
1
Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN), Division of Bio and Soft Matter (BSMA),
Croix du Sud 1, Universit
e catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
2
Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN), Division of Molecules, Solids and Reactivity
(MOST), Place Louis Pasteur 1, Universit
e catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
3
Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM),
Place du Levant 3, Universit
e catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
(Received 12 August 2014; accepted 30 August 2014; published online 10 September 2014)
Highly ordered polycarbonate films containing parallel graphite nanoplatelets have been produced
by squeezing the corresponding random nanocomposites in the melt. Orientation of the conductive
fillers is observed in the plane of the film, i.e., perpendicular to the squeezing direction. It only
appears above a critical concentration of 15 wt. % and results from a confinement effect. Oriented
samples show a resonance-like sharp increase of the conductivity at a given frequency in the
microwave region, with the possibility to control the value of this frequency and the resulting
absorption by changing the nanoplatelets concentration. Above this frequency, the oriented polymer nanocomposites show a high level of electromagnetic absorption, which opens the possibility
to tailor materials with effective electromagnetic interference shielding by absorption in selected
frequency ranges. The in-plane stacking of conductive nanoplatelets separated by insulating polymer induces their strong capacitive coupling to the signal propagating in the plane of the polymer
film. As a result, the equivalent circuit of this propagation becomes a resonant system composed
C 2014
of capacitors, inductors, and resistors, which agrees well with the experimental results. V
AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4895674]
a)
FIG. 1. Microstrip line used for electromagnetic characterization with schematic representation.
b)
0003-6951/2014/105(10)/103105/4/$30.00
105, 103105-1
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.104.204.161 On: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:35:42
103105-2
Mesfin et al.
FIG. 2. SEM micrographs of polycarbonate expanded graphite nanocomposites at concentrations of (a) 25 wt. %,
(b) 20 wt. %, (c)17.5 wt. %, (d) 15 wt.
%, (e) 10 wt. %, (f) 1 wt. %, arrow
indicate the squeezing direction.
electromagnetic waves is significantly reduced, which suggests that most of the power is absorbed inside the polymer
nano-composite, making it attractive for microwave absorbers. Figure 4 confirms this hypothesis: whatever the wt. %,
the reflection coefficient S11 is kept lower than 10 dB over
the whole frequency range, without noticeable increase
above corresponding cut-off frequencies. This confirms that
reflection plays no significant role in the strong reduction of
power transmission observed in Figure 3.
The conductivity was extracted from the measured scattering parameters, as described in Ref. 12. The conductivity
shows a resonant-like strong jump (see Figure 5), at a frequency correlated with the position of the S12 scattering minima in Figure 3. At higher frequencies, the conductivity
either increases as in the case of 25 and 20 wt. % GNP or
stays relatively constant as in the case of 17.5 and 15 wt. %
GNP.
The observed electromagnetic properties can be directly
correlated to the morphology of the samples. We can assume
that strong capacitive coupling occurs between well oriented/stacked conductive nanoplatelets and microstrip mode
of propagation in the plane of the polymer substrate, yielding
a resonance at a certain frequency. Above it, wave transmission through the network of platelets dominates, with strong
absorption resulting from their conductive nature. The nanoplatelets concentration and orientation affects their spacing,
which directly controls the coupling capacitance and the
position of the resonance frequency.
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.104.204.161 On: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:35:42
103105-3
Mesfin et al.
FIG. 6. (a) Equivalent circuit including capacitance between parallel platelets (Cgap is the equivalent capacitance of a stack of platelets), capacitance
between lateral platelets (Clateral), and capacitance between the strip line and
the ground (CM) assumed to be constant. (b) Conductivity versus frequency
from equivalent circuit.
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.104.204.161 On: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:35:42
103105-4
9
Mesfin et al.
This article is copyrighted as indicated in the article. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://scitation.aip.org/termsconditions. Downloaded to IP:
130.104.204.161 On: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:35:42