Electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance materials are urgently needed to relieve the increasing stress over electromagnetic pollution problems arising from the growing demand for electronic and electrical devices. In this work, a novel ultralight (0.15 g/cm(3)) carbon foam was prepared by direct carbonization of phthalonitrile (PN)-based polymer foam aiming to simultaneously achieve high EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) and deliver effective weight reduction without detrimental reduction of the mechanical properties. The carbon foam prepared by this method had specific compressive strength of ∼6.0 MPa·cm(3)/g. High EMI SE of ∼51.2 dB was achieved, contributed by its intrinsic nitrogen-containing structure (3.3 wt% of nitrogen atoms). The primary EMI shielding mechanism of such carbon foam was determined to be absorption. Moreover, the carbon foams showed excellent specific EMI SE of 341.1 dB·cm(3)/g, which was at least 2 times higher than most of the reported material. The remarkable EMI shielding performance combined with high specific compressive strength indicated that the carbon foam could be considered as a low-density and high-performance EMI shielding material for use in areas where mechanical integrity is desired.
Keywords: EMI shielding; carbon foam; carbonization; compressive strength; phthalonitrile.