Aerogels of V2O5 nanowires reinforced by polyaniline for electromagnetic interference shielding

Green electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are the most promising among EM wave attenuating solutions because of their less environmental hazard resulting from efficiently attenuating spurious waves with minimal secondary reflection. Against this background, the present paper reports a facile strategy for developing green and ultra-lightweight aerogels-based EM wave absorbers with low carbon content. Herein, we realized a peculiar 3D nanoarchitectured aerogel using nanowires of a layered oxide V2O5, which was further reinforced by a conducting polymer, polyaniline (PANI). The structure, morphology, formation of gel, and the EMI shielding properties of V2O5- PANI composite aerogel were investigated in detail. The mesoporous aerogel has a very low density of ~0.02 g/cc with maximum EMI shielding efficiency (EMI SE) of 34 dB in the X band, with an impressive specific shielding efficiency of 1662.2 dB cm3 g−1. Green index (gs) is found to be one of the highest so far (~2.91). The excellent show of EMI SE is ascribed to the multiple internal reflections inside the layered structure of V2O5 and intrinsic conducting properties of the polyaniline. Ours is the first-ever report of an eco-friendly, lightweight EMI shielding solution employing inorganic V2O5 nanowires forming robust EMI attenuating aerogel, which are free of carbonaceous fillers like carbon nanotube, graphene or even MXene.