Study on morphological, structural, electrical, and electromagnetic shielding properties of carbon fabric coated with nickel and cobalt by electroplating method

Carbon fabrics (CFs) were coated using an electroplating method with nickel and cobalt particles that possess electrical and magnetic properties. The nickel-coated carbon fabric (CFs-Ni) and cobalt-coated carbon fabric (CFs-Co) were produced; then, surface structure, elemental analysis, microstructure, color variations, electrical conductivity, magnetic properties, and EMI shielding effectiveness were examined and compared. Surface structure and elemental analysis show that metal particles are deposited on the surfaces of the CFs in both samples. The average particle sizes of nickel and cobalt were calculated to be 86±12 nm and 129±23 nm, respectively. In the CFs-Co sample (Ms = 72.24 emu/g), due to the superior magnetic properties of the cobalt metal mass, the magnetic properties are significantly better than those of the CFs-Ni sample (Ms = 21.87 emu/g). Additionally, other magnetic parameters are higher in the CFs-Co sample due to the larger particle sizes compared to CFs-Ni. The electrical conductivity of the CFs-Ni and CFs-Co samples are 407.12±31.59 S/cm and 310.96±23.19 S/cm, respectively. The average EMI shielding effectiveness for both samples CFs-Ni and CFs-Co were measured to be 67.16±1.64 dB and 56.71±3.41 dB, respectively. The contributions of absorption and reflection of electromagnetic waves for both samples were analyzed. The absorption rates for the CFs-Ni and CFs-Co samples were calculated to be 80.5% and 88.6%, respectively. This study demonstrates that both samples, due to their exceptional electromagnetic wave absorption, can be used as materials for EMI shielding applications, such as in aerospace industries and sensitive electronic components.