Substantially improving mechanical property of double percolated poly(phenylene sulfide)/poly(arylenesulfide sulfone)/graphene nanoplates composites with superior electromagnetic interference shielding performance

The electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) can be conspicuously enhanced at low conductive filler contents with the formation of segregated structure in the conductive polymer composites (CPCs). Nevertheless, poor interface adhesion of segregated composites results in poor mechanical properties due to the selective distribution of conductive fillers. In this work, a flexible approach was applied to fabricate the poly(phenylene sulfide)/poly(arylene sulfide sulfone)/graphene nanoplates (GNPs) composite with a unique double percolated structure. This composite exhibits an outstanding EMI SE of 38.8 dB with only 3 wt % GNPs, which is comparable to that of the conventional segregated structure counterpart. What is more, the tensile strength and Young's modulus of double percolated composites with 3 wt % GNPs are remarkably improved by ~892 and ~274% compared to conventional segregated structure, achieving 37.7 and 1788.3 MPa, respectively. This work provides a valuable method for producing CPCs with high EMI shielding performances and outstanding mechanical properties. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 137, 48709.