Preparation of fine Ni particles and their shielding effectiveness for electromagnetic interference

Fine Ni particles with sphere‐like architecture were synthesized via a wet chemical route in distilled water. The resulting fine Ni particles and/or commercial microsized Ni particles were then added to a mixed resin solution to fabricate resin‐based conductive composites. The shielding effectiveness (SE) of the resultant conductive composites for electromagnetic interference was measured as a function of nickel mass fraction. The results indicated that the SE values of the two kinds of Ni‐containing resin‐based composites increased with increasing loading of Ni filler. Moreover, the fine Ni particles, in the absence of any protective agents, were liable to aggregate for the sake of decreasing surface energy, which could be well avoided by ultrasonic disposal. The resin‐based conductive composites containing a low concentration (33.3 wt %) of the ultrasonically disposed fine Ni particles recorded an SE value as much as above 22 dB in a frequency range of 130 MHz to 1.5 GHz, which could not be realized for the composites filled with microsized nickel particles unless the mass fraction of the Ni filler in this case was as high as 50.0 wt %. In other words, the ultrasonically disposed fine Ni particles could be used as efficient lightweight filler for shielding of electromagnetic interference. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008