Scalable development of a multi-phase thermal management system with superior EMI shielding properties.

Abstract The search for lightweight, flexible, thermally stable and thermally conductive materials with good electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding ability remains the most serious prospect in recent years. Herein, a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based multi-phase system is fabricated using hollow cenospheres (CS), mesocarbon microbeads (MCMB) and multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with or without iron oxide via homogenization and vacuum assisted filtration technique. Resulting composite paper is stabilized to provide enough strength to the composite paper with thickness 0.18 mm and density 0.31–0.33 g/cm3 which can vary in accordance with cenospheres loading. Composite paper exhibits very high EMI SE value of −75.6 dB on 20 wt% cenospheres loading while a synergistic effect of dual dielectric (CS) and magnetic (iron oxide) materials in the composite paper, results in excellent EMI shielding value of −80.5 dB at a frequency of 10.3 GHz. Furthermore, the composite paper shows good thermal stability and enough thermal conductivity required for proper heat transfer management. Therefore, the development of multi-functional composite paper in one entity may get benefits of excellent EMI performance, good thermal stability and significant heat dissipation capability with the advantage of lightness and flexibility. Graphical abstract Free standing, flexible and light weight hybrid composite paper was developed by simple strategy using cenospheres and iron oxide nanoparticles as filler in a mesocarbon microbeads and multiwall carbon-nanotubes based matrix which exhibits exceptional EMI SE of −80 dB in X-band with efficient heat dissipation ability. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]