Rational design of hollow rice-grained α-Fe2O3/carbon nanofibers with optimized impedance matching for electromagnetic wave absorption enhanced

Abstract

Electromagnetic wave absorption materials are widely used in electronic equipment and military fields. However, high cost and complex preparation processes become a major obstacle in promoting popularization in the civil field. To solve the problems above, researchers have made great efforts to develop Fe-based carbon composites. However, most of the typical composites require a high filling ratio while achieving excellent properties. Therefore, in this study, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) combined with the hollow rice-grained α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were prepared by the in-situ transformation method. The rational microstructure design provided a solution for reducing the filling ratio, optimizing impedance matching, and improving electromagnetic wave absorption performance. The strong reflection loss value (−38.1 dB) and broad effective absorption bandwidth (4.6 GHz) for Fe2O3/CNFs composites were achieved with a low filling ratio (20 wt.%), and the analysis of electromagnetic parameters validated that the microstructure of Fe2O3/CNFs plays a crucial role in the performance improvement. With the optimized impedance matching and simple preparation method, Fe2O3/CNFs have broad application prospects in electromagnetic wave absorption.