Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of carbon/stainless steel/polypropylene hybrid yarn-based knitted fabrics and their composites

In this study, a range of conductive hybrid knitted fabrics and their composites have been investigated for shielding effectiveness in the frequency ranges of 50 MHz to 1.5 GHz (low frequency) and 4 to 8 GHz (C-Band). Carbon and stainless steel (SS) filaments were combined in Dref-3 spinning machine and different hybrid yarns were prepared. The plain- and rib-knitted fabrics were made in V-bed flat knitting machine from the prepared hybrid yarns. The composite laminate was prepared by sandwiching a ply of fabric between the polypropylene films in compression moulding machine at 180 °C for 5 min under a consolidation pressure of 12 bar. All the fabrics and composites were tested for shielding effectiveness (SE) in coaxial transmission line and C-band waveguide with the help of vector network analyser. It was observed that fabric having both conductive loop and inlaid yarns exhibited higher SE of 20.2 dB than other fabrics in low-frequency range. However, in the composite form, carbon composite with SS inlaid yarn showed better SE of 45 dB than other composites. In C-band frequency range, conductive loop fabric structures yielded high shielding effect in course direction compared to wales direction. Compared to fabric form, the composite showed higher SE for all frequency ranges. This study proposes that knitted fabrics and their composites can be utilized as electromagnetic shields in wide frequency ranges.