Facile fabrication of Ni embedded TiO2/C core-shell ternary nanofibers with multicomponent functional synergy for efficient electromagnetic wave absorption

Abstract

Fabrication of multi-component composites is regarded as an effective strategy to obtain efficient electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption materials. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to find effective approaches to reasonably collocate compositions and construct microstructures to achieve the synergetic effects. In this work, Ni embedded TiO2/C core-shell ternary nanofibers were fabricated by a combined method of electrospinning and subsequent thermal treatment. The surface of the carbon nanofibers of 200 nm in diameter was coated with a rough and wrinkled layer of TiO2, and metallic Ni nanoparticles with size of 20–30 nm were uniformly embedded in the matrix of the nanofibers. The ternary nanofibers with the molar ratio of 4:1 between TiO2 and metallic Ni exhibited excellent maximum effective absorption bandwidth of 6.7 GHz at 2.6 mm, with minimum reflection loss value reaching −74.5 dB at 2.0 mm. It is found that TiO2 optimized impedance matching characteristics and metallic Ni promoted attenuation capacity through electromagnetic parameter regulation. This work not only showed the huge application promise for the ternary composites, but also provided meaningful theoretical guidance for the design of high-efficiency EM wave absorption materials in future studies.