A novel ternary composite: fabrication, performance and application of expanded graphite/polyaniline/CoFe2O4 ferrite

Expanded graphite–polyaniline microparticles (EG/PANI), synthesized by the emulsion polymerization of aniline in the presence of expanded graphite, were coated with CoFe2O4 ferrite (CF) to form ternary composites of EG/PANI/CoFe2O4 (EG/PANI/CF). The phase composition, morphology, electrical and magnetic performances of the composites were characterized by means of modern measurement technology. The results indicated that the electrical and magnetic performances of the ternary composites were related to their composition, and were better than those of binary composites. The EG/PANI/CF composites with a mCF/mEG/PANI of 0.2 had the best conductivity (86.207 S cm−1) of all ternary composites. The EG/PANI/CF composites with a mCF/mEG/PANI of 0.8 at a thickness of 0.5 mm had the minimum reflection loss of −19.13 dB at 13.28 GHz and an available bandwidth of 5.94 GHz. Hence, the obtained composites had potential and valuable applications in microwave shielding and absorption fields.