Transparent and Corrosion-Resistant PDMS/ITO/Ag/ITO Multilayer Film for Efficient EMI Shielding in a Marine Environment

The issue of increased electromagnetic pollution has sparked widespread demands for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding technology in specialized applications such as optical windows and periscopes. More importantly, the materials maintaining a high transmittance and excellent EMI shielding stability in harsh environments still remain an urgent challenge. In this work, a multilayered PDMS/ITO/Ag/ITO (PIAI) film is constructed by magnetron sputtering and spin-coating techniques. The PIAI film with a sandwiched structure design exhibited an efficient shielding effectiveness of 35 dB in the X-band while boasting an impressive transmittance of 89% at 550 nm ascribed to refractive index matching of the PDMS layer and phase cancellation interference between ITO layers. It also represented satisfying corrosion resistance and chemical stability, with a slight shielding effectiveness decrease of 5% after immersing for 24 h in 5 wt % NaCl solution. Therefore, the as-obtained multilayered film integrates the multifunctionality of efficient EMI shielding, high light transmission, and excellent corrosion resistance, offering a promising avenue for transparent EMI shielding films applied to visible windows in a harsh environment.