Multiscale Assembly of Grape-Like Ferroferric Oxide and Carbon Nanotubes: A Smart Absorber Prototype Varying Temperature to Tune Intensities

TLDR

Ideal electromagnetic attenuation materials must shield interference while providing strong absorption, yet achieving lightweight, thermally stable, high‑efficiency microwave absorbers that can be tuned for harsh thermal environments remains a major challenge. The authors synthesize grape‑like Fe₃O₄‑MWCNT composites with multiscale, uniform, crystalline, highly magnetized, superparamagnetic nanostructures, and demonstrate that temperature‑controlled impedance matching—via simultaneous changes in dielectric and magnetic loss—enables tunable absorption across the X band. These Fe₃O₄‑MWCNTs act as a smart microwave absorber whose two absorption belts in the 323–473 K range can be tuned from approximately –10 to –15 dB and –16 to –25 dB, respectively, achieving reflection loss ≤–20 dB over the entire X band and confirming the effectiveness of the special assembly for high‑temperature absorption.

Abstract

Ideal electromagnetic attenuation material should not only shield the electromagnetic interference but also need strong absorption. Lightweight microwave absorber with thermal stability and high efficiency is a highly sought-after goal of researchers. Tuning microwave absorption to meet the harsh requirements of thermal environments has been a great challenge. Here, grape-like Fe3O4-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are synthesized, which have unique multiscale-assembled morphology, relatively uniform size, good crystallinity, high magnetization, and favorable superparamagnetism. The Fe3O4-MWCNTs is proven to be a smart microwave-absorber prototype with tunable high intensities in double belts in the temperature range of 323–473 K and X band. Maximum absorption in two absorbing belts can be simultaneously tuned from ∼−10 to ∼−15 dB and from ∼−16 to ∼−25 dB by varying temperature, respectively. The belt for reflection loss ≤−20 dB can almost cover the X band at 323 K. The tunable microwave absorption is attributed to effective impedance matching, benefiting from abundant interfacial polarizations and increased magnetic loss resulting from the grape-like Fe3O4 nanocrystals. Temperature adjusts the impedance matching by changing both the dielectric and magnetic loss. The special assembly of MWCNTs and magnetic loss nanocrystals provides an effective pathway to realize excellent absorbers at elevated temperature.