Two-step thermal treatment of electrochemical graphene oxide films for high-performance electrical heating and electromagnetic interference shielding

Electric heaters have attracted growing interest due to their wide applications in healthcare, smart wear, and aerospace. Contrarily, conventional heaters fail to meet the expectations of flexibility, high temperature, and efficiency. The current protocol focus on the fabrication of a flexible, high-temperature, and high-performance heater through a multi-step strategy. The modified two-step electrochemical exfoliation approach facilitated the formation of electrochemical graphene oxide (EGO). The simple two-step thermal treatment of EGO produced graphene film. The EGO structure exhibits excellent flexibility, good electrical conductivity, and thermal stability after thermal treatment. Consequently, graphene film showed good flexibility and efficient electric heating performance. It only required 13 s to reach 401.2 °C at 3.5 V. Additionally, graphene film displays sufficient heating reliability, stability, and repeatability under heating cycles and prolonged heating. Moreover, it demonstrates electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of up to 30383.6 dB cm2/g. Therefore, graphene film has emerged as a promising alternative for developing intelligent clothes, wearable devices, and healthcare devices.