Light-weight and highly flexible TaC modified PyC fiber fabrics derived from cotton fiber textile with excellent electromagnetic shielding effectiveness

For the first time, tantalum carbide (TaC) nanoparticles modified pyrolytic carbon fiber (TaC/PyC)_f fabrics were elaborately designed and fabricated through in-situ formation of TaC nanophase on the surface of PyC_f fabrics derived from pyrolysis of cotton fiber clothes. The introduction of highly electrically conductive TaC nanophase significantly improved the electrical conductivity and interaction capability of (TaC/PyC)_f fabrics with electromagnetic waves in terms of reflection and absorption, which leads to a significant increase in the total shielding effectiveness (SE_T). With a thickness of ~260 μm, the best SE_T of the resultant (TaC/PyC)_f fabrics can reach 75.0 dB compared to 24.4 dB of the PyC_f fabrics with otherwise identical conditions. Through employing both the advantages of TaC and C_f, flexible, thin and light-weight (TaC/PyC)_f fabrics possessing excellent SE were obtained.