High-performance
electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and
thermal management materials with ultraflexibility, high strength,
outstanding stability under mechanical deformation, and low cost are
urgently demanded for modern integrated electronic and telecommunication
systems. However, the creation and application of such desirable materials
is still a potent challenge. Herein, we develop such a high-performance
multifunctional multilayer composite, known as vertically aligned
carbon nanotube@graphene paper/polydimethylsilane (VACNT@GP/PDMS),
which involves the in situ growth of VACNTs onto
GPs, vertical stacking of VACNT@GP layers, and infiltration of PDMS.
The EMI shielding and mechanical properties of multilayer composites
can be dramatically increased by increasing the number of VACNT@GP
layers. Benefiting from the conduction loss in highly conductive GPs
and polarization of huge VACNT–PDMS–VACNT microcapacitor
networks, the multilayer composite with four VACNT@GP layers exhibits
a superior EMI SE of 106.7 dB over a broad bandwidth of 32 GHz, covering
the entire X-, Ku-, K-, and Ka-bands, which far suppresses the values
of most of the reported EMI shielding materials. Moreover, the multilayer
composites show excellent thermal management performance such as a
high Joule-heating temperature at low supplied voltages, rapid response
time, and sufficient heating stability. In addition, remarkable flexibility,
high tensile strength (up to 13.4 MPa), and super stability under
mechanical deformation (nearly no EMI SE degradation after repeatedly
bending 10,000 times) are also discovered. These excellent comprehensive
properties, along with the ease of low-cost mass production, pave
the way for the practical applications of multilayer VACNT@GP/PDMS
composites in EMI shielding and thermal management.