The JBNU research team has developed a nanofiber composite material that achieves comparable electromagnetic shielding performance to existing commercial materials while reducing thickness to about one-third. The material is being highlighted as a next-generation shielding solution capable of responding to device miniaturization and semiconductor high integration.

At JBNU's Interventional Mechano-Biotechnology Convergence Research Center (Director Kwak Hyo-seong), doctoral candidate Oh Jin and Dr. Kang Gyeong-in of the Biomaterials & Mechano-Biology Laboratory electrospun a thermosetting epoxy resin to fabricate a metal-platable nanofiber membrane and verified its electromagnetic shielding performance.

As electronic devices become smaller and semiconductor transistors become more highly integrated, the importance of shielding materials that protect devices from electromagnetic interference (EMI) is increasing.

However, existing polymer-based shielding materials are mainly manufactured by plating metal onto thermoplastic nonwoven fabrics, which imposes limitations on thickness, density, flexibility, and manufacturing reproducibility. Thermoplastic nanofibers also face difficulties maintaining inherent structural features such as fine pores and fiber diameters during metal-coating processes.

To address these issues, the research team focused on thermosetting epoxy resin, which offers superior mechanical strength, chemical resistance, and heat resistance. Using a self-developed electrospinning system, they produced nanofiber membranes and applied an electroless plating process that deposits metal without an external power source to produce the electromagnetic shielding composite material.

A key point was optimizing electrospinning conditions to match the characteristics of thermosetting resins, whose curing proceeds and viscosity changes during the electrospinning process, making stable nanofiber production difficult. The team identified electrospinning conditions suitable for epoxy resin, resolving these issues and confirming the ability to manufacture uniform nanofiber membranes.

The epoxy nanofiber membrane developed in this study exhibited 90 dB shielding performance in the 920–923 MHz band at approximately one-third the thickness of conventional commercial electromagnetic shielding materials. By leveraging the nanofiber structure, the material was made thinner while securing shielding performance equivalent to commercial products.

The research team plans to enhance the mechanical and electrical properties of the epoxy nanofiber membrane through follow-up studies and expand its application areas. They will also examine whether the material can be used beyond electromagnetic shielding, for example as a radiation shielding barrier for defense and aerospace applications and as a replacement for lead aprons used in medical settings.

The results of this study were published online in the latest 2026 issue of the international advanced materials journal Journal of Materials Chemistry A. Related technologies have been filed for patent, laying the groundwork for future commercialization.

The research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Materials and Parts Technology Development Project and the Industrial Innovation Infrastructure Establishment Project.