The Effective Surface Metallization of Hollow Glass Microspheres for Flexible Electromagnetic Shielding Film

Abstract

The surface of hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) was roughened by a HCl+NH₄F strategy, which achieved a broken ratio as 16.10%, and then metallized by electroless plating by Co nanoparticles up to 90 wt% (abbreviated as Co-HGMs). The average grain size of Co was measured to range from 0.4 to 0.5 µm. Then Co-HGMs were mixed with liquid silicone rubber and xylene, and cured on a perspex plate applicable for flexible electromagnetic shielding. By attentive parameter optimization, a film about 0.836 mm in thickness was obtained with a density of 0.729 g/cm³, showing a shielding effectiveness of 15.2 dB in the X-band (8.2–12.4 GHz) at room temperature, which was ascribed to the formation of a conductive network of Co-HGMs inside the film. Simultaneously, the tensile strength of 0.89 MPa at an elongation ratio of 194.5% was also obtained, showing good mechanical properties and tensile strength.

Keywords

hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) / electroless plating / electromagnetic shielding film / flexible film / lightweight materials

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