Fe3O4/carbon composite nanofiber absorber with enhanced microwave absorption performance

Fe3O4/carbon composite nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/acetyl acetone iron (AAI)/dimethyl formamide (DMF) solution, followed by stabilization and carbonization. SEM and TEM observations reveal that the fibers are lengthy and uniform, and are loaded with well-distributed Fe3O4 nanoparticles, which are evidenced by XRD. Electrical and magnetic properties of the samples were studied to show the effect of enhancement of electrical conductivity and magnetic hysteresis performance. Finally, the permittivity and permeability parameters were measured by a vector network analyzer, and the reflectivity loss was calculated based on Transmission Line Theory. Results show that Fe3O4/C composite nanofibers exhibit enhanced properties of microwave absorption as compared to those of pure carbon nanofibers by: decreasing reflectivity loss values; widening absorption width and improving performance in low frequency (2–5 GHz) absorption. Absorption properties can be tuned by changing AAI content, carbonization temperature, composite fiber/paraffin ratio and coating thickness. It is shown that with coating thickness of 5 mm and fiber/paraffin ratio of 5 wt.%, the bandwidth for reflection loss under −5 dB can reach a maximum of 12–13 GHz in the range of 2–18 GHz, accompanying with a minimum reflection loss of −40 to −45 dB, and preferred low frequency band absorption can also be obtained. The mechanisms for the enhanced absorption performance were briefly discussed. It is supposed that this kind of composite material is promising for resolving the problems of weak absorption in the low frequency range and narrow bandwidth absorption.