Preparation and excellent microwave absorption properties of ferromagnetic graphene/poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/CoFe₂O₄ nanocomposites

In this work, a novel ternary nanocomposites consisting of graphene, poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (GN/PEDOT/CoFe₂O₄) had been prepared by a facile two-step method. The obtained ternary nanocomposites were characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS, TG and VSM. The results indicated that the ternary nanocomposites had a ferromagnetic behavior and the average diameter of CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles was in the range of 10-20nm. The investigation of the microwave absorbability indicated that GN/PEDOT/CoFe₂O₄ exhibited enhanced microwave absorption properties compared with GN/PEDOT and GN/CoFe₂O₄. The maximum reflection loss of the ternary nanocomposites was up to -43.2dB at 9.4GHz and the absorption bandwidths exceeding -10dB were 3.1GHz with a coating layer thickness of 2.4mm. Furthermore, our development strategies expanded the scope of microwave absorbing materials and confirmed that the ternary nanocomposites had a promising future in microwave absorbing materials.