Magnetic CoNi alloy particles embedded N-doped carbon fibers with polypyrrole for excellent electromagnetic wave absorption

Abstract Increasing electromagnetic (EM) radiation has driven the rapid development of carbon-based EM wave absorption materials, but the design of light-weight and efficient carbon-based materials remains a huge challenge. Herein, N-doped carbon fibers embedded with CoNi alloy particles (CoNi/C fibers) were synthesized via electrospinning technology and carbonization. Then, conductive polypyrrole-coated CoNi/C fibers (CoNi/C@PPy composites) were synthesized by chemical polymerization. As-synthesized CoNi/C@PPy composites showed outstanding EM wave absorption property due to the synergistic effect between CoNi, N-doped carbon fibers and PPy. The optimal reflection loss (RL) is -68.78 dB (12.90 GHz) with the thickness of 2.43 mm and the low filler loading of 15 wt%. The widest effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) is 5.62 GHz with the thickness of 2.10 mm and the low filler loading of 20 wt%. The outstanding EM wave absorption property is mainly attributed to 3D network structure, great impedance matching and strong dielectric loss. The results showed that embedding magnetic alloy particles in carbon fibers coated with conductive polymers is an effective strategy for constructing efficient lightweight EM wave absorption materials.