Carbon-Encapsulated Fe Nanoparticles Embedded in Organic Polypyrrole Polymer as a High Performance Microwave Absorber

Abstract

In this study, highly effective organic–inorganic composites Fe/C/PPy (Fe/C nanocapsules embedded in polypyrrole) were prepared by combining the arc-discharge process and in situ oxidative polymerization method. It was found that Fe/C/PPy-paraffin composites have higher dielectric loss in comparison with both Fe/C-paraffin and PPy-paraffin composites, implying enhanced dielectric properties by this embedded structure. The RL (reflection loss) exceeding −10 dB is obtained in the 11.2–16.9 GHz for a given thickness of 2.2 mm, which covers most of the Ku-band (12–18 GHz). The RL exceeding −10 dB is obtained in the 9.6–14.1 GHz for a given thickness of 2.5 mm, which covers most of the X-band (8–12 GHz). The illustration of the physical model indicated that the special embedded structure with abundant heterogeneous interfaces is responsible for the excellent microwave-absorption performances.