Electrospinning fabrication and ultra-wideband electromagnetic wave absorption properties of CeO₂/N-doped carbon nanofibers

The impedance mismatch of carbon materials is a key factor limiting their widespread use in electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption. In this work, the novel CeO₂/nitrogen-doped carbon (CeO₂/N-C) nanofiber was prepared to solve the problem by electrospinning and sintering. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses demonstrated CeO₂ was successfully loaded onto the surface of partially graphitized carbon fibers. Different sintering temperatures change the graphitization degree of material, and the oxygen vacancy structure of CeO₂ and defects from N doping optimize the impedance matching of the material. When the sintering temperature reaches 950 °C, CeO₂/N-C fiber possesses the minimum reflection loss (RL_min) value of −42.59 dB at 2.5 mm with a filler loading of only 3 wt.% in polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF). Meanwhile, the CeO₂/N-C fiber achieves a surprising wideband (8.48 GHz) at a thickness of 2.5 mm, covering the whole Ku-band as well as 63% of the X-band at the sintering temperature of 650 °C. This work provides the research basis for widely commercial applications of carbon-based nanofiber absorbers. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]