Electrospun Co/attapulgite/carbon nanofibers with the curved and multicomponent heterogeneous structures as excellent microwave absorbers

Abstract

Multicomponent design based on magnetic carbon nanofibers (CNFs) composite is an expected approach to achieve excellent microwave absorption. Herein, the Co/attapulgite (ATP)/CNFs were prepared via electrospinning and vacuum calcination. The structure and electromagnetic (EM) properties of Co/ATP/CNFs impacted by the structure evolution of ATP at different calcination temperatures was investigated. At the calcination temperature of 550 °C, the optimal reflection loss (RL) reached −46.67 dB at 15.76 GHz in 2.5 mm thickness, and the effective absorbing bandwidth (EAB) reached 6.72 GHz at 3.0 mm thickness. ATP is introduced into Co/CNFs to construct the magnetic CNFs with various interfaces and bending structures, thereby enhancing dielectric loss and improving impedance matching, and finally realizing broadband absorption. This work presents a promising mentality to obtain environmental protection and efficient microwave absorbing materials (MAs).