Effect of thermal-air ageing treatment on mechanical properties and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of low-cost nano-structured carbon filled chlorinated polyethylene

Easy fabrication of flexible and high-performance polymeric composites for radiation shielding has been prioritized since the last few decades. But most of the materials have been suffering from lack of durability in environmental exposures. Herein, to develop a new flexible composite with significant mechanical robustness and longtime durability, a low percolating nano carbon clusters reinforced polymer composite has been proposed. The chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) composite showed low percolation threshold (13.7 wt%), and superior electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding value (42.4 dB) at 40 wt% conductive Vulcan XC-72 (VXC) carbon black loading. It was assessed that CPE composites have excellent serviceability on desired mechanical and EMI shielding properties after thermal-air ageing treatment. Altogether, this work provides an economical way to fabricate flexible CPE composites as serviceable EMI shield material with desired attributes.