Optimum conditions of electroless nickel plating on carbon fibres for EMI shielding effectiveness of ENCF/ABS composites

Nickel coated carbon fibres, the best conductive fillers for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, were produced by electroless nickel plating. The carbon fibres, T300C and T700SC, were plated at different workloads, pH values and temperatures of plating bath, and were used for preparing composites of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene by polymer blending to test the EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) by the coaxial transmission line test method. The best SE (44 dB) was reached by the deposition conditions of workload=2 g/L, pH 9 and temperature 70°C.