Ultra-thin Metallized Glass Fabric Coated with Chitosan and Reduced Graphene Oxide for Electromagnetic Shielding with Excellent Heat Dissipation and Self-Cleaning

With the rapid development of modern technology, more and more electronic equipment had entered people’s life, causing serious electromagnetic pollution. In this study, a lightweight, ultra-thin and high electromagnetic shielding film was fabricated by copper electroless deposition after solution immersion coating method combining chitosan (CTS) and reduced graphene oxide on glass fabric (Cu/RGO-CTS-coated glass fabric). Chitosan and RGO had synergistic effect for copper deposition, enhancing electrical conductivity and electromagnetic shielding property. The prepared fabric showed superb conductivity of 8589.3 S/cm and the shielding effectiveness of the Cu/RGO-CTS-coated glass fabric showed as high as 93.6 dB at ultra-thin thickness of 92.4 μm (SSE/t = 3868.8 dB cm² g⁻¹). Thermal conductivity, antibacterial and hydrophobic properties were also studied. Compared with untreated glass fabric, thermal conductivity of Cu/RGO-CTS-coated glass fabric increased by 437%, protecting electronic equipment from adverse effects at high temperature. Cu/RGO-CTS-coated glass fabric had inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, which could prolong the service life and maintain the appearance of the fabric. Cu/RGO-CTS-coated glass fabric also showed hydrophobicity with self-cleaning function, making it possible for the composite material to be used in many fields such as aerospace industry, microelectronic devices, and transportation to resist electromagnetic interference in high humidity and high pollution environment.