The lighter, faster and smaller our electronics have become, the larger the electromagnetic interference is.
It has become a concern for electronics manufacturers about the increase of gadgets, computers and appliances carrying electric current. When electromagnetic interference occurs, there are disturbing effects like the noises or buzzes in devices, blurs in monitors and slowing down of processing speeds.
To add to these problems is the additional bulk and weight of the conventional materials used to block out electromagnetic radiation like copper or aluminium, which are conductive metals.
Source: Can Tech Letter
This is what pushed engineers from Drexel University in Philadelphia and the Korea Institute of Science & Technology in Seoul, South Korea to develop an ultra-thin material that can almost completely block electromagnetic waves.
“As technology evolves and electronics become lighter, faster and smaller, their electromagnetic interference increases dramatically,” says Babak Anasori, assistant professor at the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and co-author of the new study published in the journal Science.
“Therefore, it is of great importance to achieve better protection with thinner films,” he added.
Called the MXenes, it is a new group of 2D materials created out of metal carbides or nitrides which measures only a few atoms thick. It has high electrical conductivity and has the capacity to reflect electromagnetic waves to a high degree.
It also absorbs some of those waves while allowing the others to pass through but with far less energy. The catch is in its application: it just needs to be sprayed on any surface that can be as thin as one millimetre.
And it is effective. The researchers have found that even in the thinnest it could get which is only a few micrometers thick, the MXene was able to block out 99.99% of radiation over a frequency range running from cell phones to radar.
Source: CanTech Letter
