Recent advances in graphene-based films for electromagnetic interference shielding: Review and future prospects

With the development of electronic information technology, it brings great convenience, but also many problems, which are caused by electromagnetic waves and even threaten human health. Recently, to solve these problems, electromagnetic shielding materials emerge in endlessly. Particularly, graphene has aroused extensively studied by researchers due to its amazing and imitable electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. To better maintain the graphene as some of the features of two-dimensional materials, such as ultrahigh specific surface area, high conductivity and excellent mechanical properties, graphene and the corresponding films were constantly study, especially their microstructure, orientation, uniform dispersion of graphene structure regulation and functional design of electromagnetic shielding, flexibility, thermal conductivity, etc. In this review, the electromagnetic shielding theories and various kinds of shielding materials with respect to its preparation method, structure and properties are briefly introduced. Specially, the preparation methods and characteristics of various types of graphene films such as pure graphene films, inorganic composite films, polymer composite films, other multi-component composite films and multi-functional films are introduced in detail in terms of their structures, properties, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding application and the corresponding mechanisms. In addition, the challenges, research directions and future prospects of graphene-based films are highlighted and discussed. [Display omitted] •In this paper, the related mechanisms and materials in the field of electromagnetic shielding are introduced systematically.•Five preparation methods of graphene electromagnetic shielding films are introduced in detail.•The applications of three kinds of graphene films in the field of electromagnetic shielding are analyzed in detail.