Fabrication of microwave absorbing Fe3O4/MWCNTs@CFs nanocomposite by means of an electrophoretic co-deposition process

Abstract

The current study reports the fabrication of a nanocomposite with improved microwave absorption and interference shielding properties by introducing multi-wall carbon nanotubes and Fe3O4 nanoparticles onto carbon fibers through an electrophoretic co-deposition process. The results revealed that the Fe3O4/multi-wall carbon nanotubes@carbon fiber nanocomposite structure with a high specific surface area of 87.12 m2. g−1 was successfully fabricated. The epoxy-based composite filled with the nanocomposites had both of the magnetic and dielectric losses at 8.2–18 GHz frequency range. The maximum reflection loss of −17.1 dB with an effective absorption bandwidth of 8 GHz was obtained for the sample filled with 20 wt.% of the nanocomposite with a thickness of 2 mm. The best electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of 35 dB was observed for the sample with a thickness of 5 mm. The achieved excellent microwave absorbing properties are attributed to the different wave attenuation mechanisms of the nanocomposite and their synergetic effects.