Interfacial polymerization-hydrothermal growth synergistic fabrication of Cu9S8/polyaniline/cotton fabric with enhanced conductivity and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness for wearable electronics

With the rapid advancement of smart wearable technologies, high-performance conductive textiles have garnered extensive attention for flexible electronic devices and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding applications. In this study, a hybrid strategy integrating interfacial polymerization and hydrothermal growth was developed to fabricate Cu 9 S 8 /PANI/cotton fabric, involving in-situ synthesis of polyaniline (PANI) on the cotton fabric surface and subsequent Cu 9 S 8 loading. The impact of sodium thiosulfate (Na 2 S 2 O 3 ) concentration on the properties of Cu 9 S 8 /PANI/cotton fabric was systematically studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the successful formation of Cu 9 S 8 with a small amount of elemental sulfur (S 0 ). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations revealed that the formed flower-like Cu 9 S 8 microspheres were uniformly distributed on the substrate. When the Na 2 S 2 O 3 concentration was optimized to 6 g·L −1 , the as-prepared Cu 9 S 8 /PANI/cotton fabric achieved a conductivity of 8.60 S·cm −1 and an EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of 27.66 dB in the X-band (8.2–12.4 GHz), accompanied by a maximum weight gain rate of 40%. Notably, it remained lightweight with considerable toughness, thus meeting the wearable electronics requirements. The dominant shielding mechanism was verified as electromagnetic wave reflection. This study proposed a facile and effective strategy for the preparation of lightweight, flexible, and high-performance EMI shielding textiles, thereby broadening the application prospects of Cu 9 S 8 in the EMI protection field.