Carbon Fiber-Based Resistive Heating Composite for High Performance Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

Integrating multifunctionality with Joule heating, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, and sensing in fiber reinforced polymer composite holds significant interest in aerospace, space shuttles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Most composites struggle to optimize simultaneously high EMI shielding over a wide detection range, high sensitivity for structural health monitoring, and de-icing performance in harsh low temperature which remains challenging. Herein, we fabricated woven carbon fiber (WCF) composites with vertically grown AgBiS₂ nanostructures over the WCF and MXene dispersed PVDF by cost-effective, fast, and innovative 3-D printing method. The high electrical conductivity imparted by the AgBiS₂ NS/MXene to WCF/PVDF composites promoted effective Joule heating (84.2 ^oC at 2 V) which bestows it with the de-icing ability. A superior EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of ≈85.7 dB and SSE_t value of 1.1×10⁴ dBcm²g^-1 is attained for the nanorod-WCF with 1.0% MXene composites. EMI SE remains high after being subjected to extreme environment (harsh operating temperatures, and rigorous mechanical wearing).