Electromagnetic Shielding Properties of Polypyrrole Treated Leather: A Comparative Study

Due to the increase in electromagnetic waves emitted by the electrical and electronic equipment surrounding us, protection from electromagnetic waves has become a very important subject. It is thereby proposed that conductive textiles and fabrics are used for protection of sensitive equipment and personnel from electromagnetic interference. Conductive textiles are considered to be a particular sub-genre of technical textiles and exhibit favourable electromagnetic shielding properties together with a list of other attributes that make them suitable for such applications. In more detail, conductive textiles exhibit light weight and low volume while being comfortable to wear, conforming to different shapes of surfaces and everyday objects (thus being easily integrated within the surrounding environment), being aesthetically appealing, etc. In this context, most of the literature-available shielding textiles or fabrics used are either conventional or conductive fabrics that are further coated with metal layers for extra conductivity and shielding. However, metal shielding exhibits certain disadvantages: it is prone to corrosion while corrosion-resistant materials (such as silver or gold) are extremely expensive; it is difficult to process; and it compromises the comfortability and aesthetic appeal of the final product. Herein, we propose the usage of electrically conductive leather for efficient shielding from electromagnetic interference. The motivation for this work is twofold: first, leather materials are seldom if not at all used for electromagnetic shielding and we wanted to close that gap for an industry sector (leather clothes and garments) that is thriving. Second, we are using one or more layers of polypyrrole treatment (PPy) to inherit conductivity to leather surfaces. We show that PPy is sufficient treatment for inheriting very satisfactory electromagnetic shielding properties all the while maintaining the comparative advantages of a non-metal-processed fabric surface (e.g. comfortability, aesthetic appeal etc.). We demonstrate a variety of different PPy treated leather samples and illustrate that electromagnetic shielding is proportional to the number of PPy layers used for leather processing. The measurements results are obtained using RF and microwave high-frequency equipment in a controlled laboratory environment within the X-microwave band (8-12 GHz).