A facile strategy for lightweight, anti-dripping, flexible polyurethane foam with low smoke emission tendency and superior electromagnetic wave blocking.

[Display omitted] • FPUF with EMIshielding performance were prepared via electroless plating SNPs. • The EMI SE accomplished 62 dB when decorated for 1 h and reached 120 dB after 2 h. • The SSE/t was 2434.00 dB·cm2/g, far satisfying the commercial request. • The PU foam exhibited anti-dripping behavior and the HRR reduced 80.92%. • CO decreased by 75.01% and other typical toxic gases (HCN, etc.) were also reduced. Flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF) has been considered as an excellent material in many fields, such as furniture and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding products due to its lightweight and flexibility. However, there is a severe fire hazard problem for FPUF that makes it unsuitable to be used in practical. Herein, a facile method was to prepare anti-dripping FPUF via electroless plating at ambient temperature. The silver nanoparticles (SNPs) were in-situ grown on the surface along with the polydopamine (PDA) as an adhesive and template (SNP@PDA@FPUF). As a result, these FPUFs show outstanding fire safety and anti-dripping capacity, and the heat release rate reduced 80.92%. Furthermore, the amounts of carbon oxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) decreased 75.01% and 22.4%, respectively. Above all, the EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) accomplished almost 120 dB as the increasing electroless time with a low density of 0.051 g/cm3. Furthermore, the specific EMI SE (SSE) and the absolute EMI SE (SSE/t) accomplished 2630.98 dB·cm3/g and 2434 dB·cm2/g, respectively, which was far beyond the commercial request. Therefore, this work may provide a facile way to prepare low density and EMI shielding products with high fire safety for next generation electronic products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]