Outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding of silver nanowires: comparison with carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) were synthesized by AC electrodeposition of Ag into porous aluminum oxide templates. AgNWs were embedded into polystyrene via a solution processing technique to create a nanocomposite. For comparison, carbon nanotube (CNT)/polystyrene nanocomposites were identically generated. TEM and XRD analyses confirmed the synthesis of AgNWs with an average diameter and length of 25 nm and 3.2 μm, respectively. TEM images also revealed that at the molding temperature (240 °C) AgNWs transformed into a chain of nanospheres. At low filler loadings, the AgNW/polystyrene nanocomposites presented inferior electrical properties compared to the CNT/polystyrene nanocomposites. This was attributed to a lower aspect ratio, fragmentation phenomenon and poorer conductive network for AgNWs. However, at high filler loadings, the electrical properties of the AgNW/polystyrene nanocomposites significantly increased. It seems that at high filler loadings, the conductive network was well-established for both types of nanocomposites and thus, the higher innate conductivity of AgNWs played a dominant role in presenting superior electrical properties.