optimizing carbon nanotube/polypropylene nanocomposites for enhanced conductivity and emi shielding

Polypropylene (pp), a widely used polyolefin, suffers from poor electrical conductivity, which limits its use in electronic packaging and electromagnetic interference (emi) shielding. in this study, conductive and emi-shielding pp nanocomposites were fabricated using dual-functionalized carbon nanotubes (cnts) via a solvent-free melt-blending route. sequential acid and silane treatments improved cnt dispersion and interfacial compatibility, yielding a low percolation threshold of ~0.3 wt.% and an electrical conductivity of 1.2 × 10⁻² s/m at 3 wt.% cnt. at 5 wt.%, the emi shielding effectiveness exceeded 41.5 db, with more than 80% of the attenuation arising from absorption, as confirmed by s-parameter analysis. ai-assisted image segmentation (u-net architecture) quantified an ~80% reduction in cnt agglomeration and increased interparticle spacing, correlating with the enhanced electrical, dielectric, and thermal properties. the dielectric constant increased from ~2.3 in neat pp to ~6.0 at 5 wt.% cnt with low dielectric loss (tan δ < 0.02), while thermal conductivity improved by ~75%. tensile strength and modulus increased up to 3 wt.% cnt with a moderate loss in ductility. the combination of dual cnt functionalization, scalable melt processing, and ai-based dispersion quantification provides a reproducible approach for designing lightweight, conductive, and emi-shielding polyolefin nanocomposites for electronic, automotive, and aerospace applications.