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Page 28 of 34 Yan et al. Soft Sci. 2025, 5, 8 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ss.2024.66

new composite material accelerates the progress of multifunctional EMI shielding materials and broadens
its potential applications. This paper systematically reviews the EMI shielding mechanisms, the preparation
and recent advancements in flexible EMI shielding materials, the significant potential of flexible PCMs for
thermal management, and typical examples of integrating flexible EMI shielding materials with PCMs. It is
important to note that even though EMI shielding is equipped with an additional dual effect of thermal
management, there are still challenges to overcome in the face of the rapid development of future electronic
devices.

(1) When electronic devices are exposed to high levels of EMI radiation, PCMs may undergo thermal
hysteresis. As a result, a large concentration of EMWs can cause a rapid increase in heat, potentially
exceeding the material’s ignition point. This may lead to irreversible damage; to mitigate this, a small
amount of flame retardant can be added to flexible EMI PCCs (a high additive level may affect the material’s
brittleness and pose a challenge to processing), increasing the upper limit of the material’s service life.

(2) To better play the EMI shielding effect in extreme environments, the new EMI composite materials that
intelligently respond to external stimuli (strain, temperature, humidity, electric field, magnetic field) are
worth further exploration. At the same time, the EMI performance will be greatly affected when the material
is damaged due to excessive external action. At this time, EMI composites with special self-healing abilities
need to be paid more attention.

(3) As the external environment continues to change, flexible materials with both EMI and thermal
management will not be able to keep up with people’s needs, so more attention should be paid to designing
more special properties such as hydrophobicity, high sensitivity (sensor function), flame retardancy, and
high transparent compression. It is worth noting that there may be mutual constraints between the
functions, so the structure and performance of the EMI shielding must be designed in an integrated manner
and the optimal balance of functions must be realized in the future.

In conclusion, the development of flexible EMI PCCs with multifunctionality is very rapid and necessary,
and we believe that the widespread use of small and medium power appliances and wearable electronics will
inspire flexible EMI PCCs with more novel functionalities to improve human life. We hope that this review
will shed light on the future challenges and opportunities for the development of lightweight EMI thermal
management materials and open new avenues for the creation of advanced and multifunctional integrated
EMI shielding materials.

DECLARATIONS
Authors’ contributions
Methodology, investigation, writing - original draft, writing - review and editing: Yan, R.
Investigation, writing - original draft, writing - review and editing: Lin, Q.
Investigation: You, K.
Methodology, investigation: Zhang, L.
Resources, review and editing, funding acquisition: Chen, Y.
Validation, resources: Huang, Z.
Writing - review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition: Sheng, X.

Availability of data and materials
Not applicable.