The hollow cubic octahedral structure of Fe3O4 with excellent electromagnetic wave absorption capacity

Abstract

The unique nanostructure combined with high dielectric and magnetic losses is essential for electromagnetic wave (EMW) attenuation in microwave-absorbing materials (MAM). In this paper, using cubic octahedral Cu2O as a template, we synthesized hollow cubic octahedral Fe(OH)3 at first. After annealing at 450 °C, the hollow cubic octahedral structure Fe3O4 could be obtained. When the filling ratio was 40 %, the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) reached -66.08 dB, and the maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) was 5.38 GHz at a thickness of 1.84 mm, exhibiting improved EMW properties compared with previous works. The hollow cubic octahedral structure of Fe3O4 enhances EMW absorption characteristics, which is attributed to abundant dipole polarization, interface polarization, and good conduction loss. These results indicate that Fe3O4 with the hollow cubic octahedral structure can be used as potential candidates for efficient and broadband EMW absorbers.