Broadband high-performance electromagnetic wave absorption of Co-doped NiZn ferrite/polyaniline on MXenes

Abstract

Ideal electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption materials should exhibit strong absorption peaks and broad effective absorption bandwidths, which are important for EM protection and the stealth technology. Despite considerable advancements in this field in recent years, EM absorption materials have not reached their full potential to meet all the above-mentioned requirements, especially the broad absorption bandwidth at low frequencies. Herein, we synthesized a Co-doped NiZn ferrite (CNZFO)/polyaniline (PANI) on Ti3C2TX MXene composite with a hierarchical structure via three facile steps: exfoliation, hydrothermal process, and modified interfacial polymerization. The CNZFO particles and PANI chains as well as the small number of TiO2 particles uniformly grafted between the Ti3C2TX layers formed a unique sandwich-like structure. The multiple-layer composite showed excellent EM wave absorption with a maximum reflection loss (RL) of −37.1 dB at only 2.2 mm. It showed an effective bandwidth (RL < −10 dB) of 4.1 GHz (8.2–12.3 GHz). The eddy current loss, natural resonance, interfacial polarization, dipole polarization, and multiple reflections of the layered structure contributed to the enhanced EM wave absorption performance of this composite. Hence, the hierarchical Ti3C2TX/CNZFO/PANI composite was found to be a promising high-quality EM wave absorption material.