Synthesis, characterization and magnetic properties of polythiophene/SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 nanocomposite as a microwave absorber

Abstract

Ferrites are an important group of magnetic materials which are used as absorbers. The incorporation of ferrite and conducting polymer achieves great enhancement in microwave absorption properties. The nanocomposites of hexagonal ferrites embedded by conducting polymers such as polypyrrole, polyaniline and polythiophene (PTH) have been paid much attention. In the present study, strontium hexagonal ferrite doped by Zr and Zn with the final formula of SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 considering x = 0.9 and embedded by PTH was produced to achieve a nanocomposite with the highest microwave absorbing ability. In this study, after synthesis of SrFe12O19(ZrZn)0.5xO19 and PTH, the nanocomposite was prepared by in situ polymerization. Wrapping the ferrite particles and PTH chains could form nanocomposite properly, and therefore acceptable interactions were observable between SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19ferrite particles and PTH polymer chains in the composites. Assessing the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19, PTH, and PTH/SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 nanocomposite indicated that the PTH characteristic peak shifts slightly and its peak intensity reduces, which may be attribute to the coating of PTH polymer chains onto SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 particles. We revealed also lower magnetic properties in the obtained nanocomposite. The morphological assessment also suggested that PTH could effectively coat the SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 particles. The synergistic effect of SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 particle plus PTH leads to microwave absorption percentage higher than 95% by PTH/SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 nanocomposite. Overall, nanocomposite creating by coupling interaction between SrFe12-x(ZrZn)0.5xO19 particles (x = 0.9) and PTH can effectively lead to achieve the highest rate of absorption of electromagnetic waves.