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The temperature dependences of the absorbance spectra of thin free-standing single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films were studied in the infrared range (700-6200 cm-1) while heating the air from 300 to 575K. The observed temperature variation in the infrared absorbance spectra has been explained by two different physical factors. The first one is the strong temperature dependence of the conductivity of p-type doped semiconducting SWCNTs. The second one is the temperature dependence of electron relaxation time of intraband electron transitions in metallic SWCNTs. The possibility of the separation of contributions from the interband and intraband transitions to the infrared spectra of SWCNT films has been demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel lightweight onion-like carbon (OLC)-based polymer composite with high electromagnetic (EM) shielding properties is presented. OLC have been produced via the large-scale production technology based on the annealing of detonation nanodiamond under vacuum conditions (or in inert atmosphere). EM shielding effectiveness has been tested in the frequency range of 26–37 GHz. The highest EM attenuation at 36.6 GHz reaching −34 dB was observed for polymethylmethacrylate films comprising 20 wt.% of OLC. The shielding effectiveness data collected for microwave frequencies were found to correlate well with the electrical resistivity measurements by four-probe method as well as conductivity measurements provided by the broadband dielectric spectroscopy (20 Hz–3 GHz). It was proved experimentally that OLC EM shielding capacity can be optimized by varying the nanoonion cluster size and nanodiamond annealing temperature so that effective EM coatings can be produced. Both the experimental observations and theoretical simulations demonstrate that even small (smaller than percolation threshold) additions of OLC particles to a polymer host can noticeably modify the composite response to EM radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]