MWCNTs as Conductive Network for Monodispersed Fe₃O₄ Nanoparticles to Enhance the Wave Absorption Performances

Magnetic oxides are widely used as electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers. To promote the absorption efficiency, tremendous efforts have been contributed to adjusting the composite, structure, and size of magnetic loss materials. Employing carbon materials (CNTs, CF, graphene, PANI) is an efficient way to improve the dielectric loss of the matrix. Anchoring the tiny-monodispersed Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) onto the lightweight multi − walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) leads to improve dielectric loss and impedance matching characteristic. Magnetic Fe₃O₄ NPs along the one-dimensional nanotubes direction play a good synergetic role with MWCNTs due to the interfacial strong chemical and structure bonding. The as-synthesized Fe₃O₄/MWCNTs nanocomposites exhibit efficient EM wave absorption characteristics (R_L av−10 dB) with a maximum reflection loss of −63.64 dB at 12.08 GHz and a diminutive thickness of only 1.6 mm. The magnetic Fe₃O₄ NPs show strong chemical and structure bonding with the one-dimensional MWCNTs. This work may show a way to broaden the application of such kinds of lightweight high-performance absorbing materials frameworks.