from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) poses a significant threat to the operational stability and reliability of modern electronic and communication systems. The increasing integration density of electronic components, particularly in aerospace, defense, and portable technologies, necessitates the development of lightweight, mechanically robust, and highly efficient shielding materials as alternatives to conventional bulk metals. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) printed Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) polymers were metallized via an electroless plating process to enhance their electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (SE). To ensure strong interfacial adhesion between the metallic coating and the polymer substrate, surface pretreatment steps including chemical etching and palladium-based catalytic activation were employed. These treatments improved surface roughness and facilitated uniform nucleation during subsequent metal deposition. Activated PETG specimens were coated in an electroless nickel (Ni) bath at 60 °C for 30 minutes, while PLA specimens were metallized with electroless copper (Cu) using a bath containing disodium EDTA as a complexing agent at 55 °C for 20 minutes. The deposited metallic layers formed continuous and conductive networks on the polymer surfaces. The electromagnetic shielding performance of the coated composites was evaluated over the investigated frequency band, and the effects of both the polymer matrix and coating type were comparatively analyzed. The results revealed that shielding performance was strongly influenced by coating conductivity, layer continuity, and frequency-dependent skin depth effects. Under optimized conditions, shielding effectiveness values reaching up to approximately 60 dB were achieved. These findings demonstrate that electroless-metallized 3D-printed polymer structures provide lightweight, structurally adaptable, and highly effective EMI shielding solutions suitable for advanced engineering applications.
Keywords: electroless coating, electromagnetic interference shielding, nickel coating, copper coating, polylactic acid, polyethylene terephthalate glycol© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.