Light-weight Gadolinium Hydroxide@polypyrrole Rare-Earth Nanocomposites with Tunable and Broadband Electromagnetic Wave Absorption

Abstract

Light-weight and highly efficient nanocomposite absorbing materials are gaining tremendous interest in recent years. Because of the unique electronic structure characteristics, nanoscale rare-earth materials are of great significance in the development of advanced functional materials. Herein, gadolinium hydroxide/polypyrrole (Gd(OH)₃@PPy) nanocomposites were synthesized by a facial chemical solution route. The composites could achieve an absorbing performance of -51.4 dB at 16.2 GHz with a bandwidth of 4.8 GHz, covering the entire Ku band at a thickness of only 2.2 mm. Furthermore, the absorption intensity and bandwidth can be effectively tuned by adjusting the concentration of Gd(OH)₃ in the composite. Because of the improvement of impedance matching, dual-loss mechanism, and the synergistic effect of rare-earth hydroxides and conductive polymers, light-weight gadolinium hydroxide@polypyrrole composites are considered as promising candidates for strong and broadband electromagnetic wave absorption.