Fabrication, characterization and X-band microwave absorption properties of PAni/Fe3O4/PVA nanofiber composites materials

Abstract

This work presents a study of microwave absorption properties of PAni/Fe3O4/PVA nanofiber composites with different ratio of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The morphology of the composites nanofibers study by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopes (FESEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) showed that the low content of Fe3O4 nanoparticles presence in the composites nanofibers indicates very much uniform surface, in the composites nanofiber without many bends, but some bends develop at higher content of Fe3O4 nanoparticles as indicated in the TEM image. Image-J software was used to further investigate the diameter of the composites nanofiber and found to be in the range of 152 to 195 nm. The nanofiber composites show excellent electric and magnetic properties and therefore vary with the addition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the composites nanofiber. In addition the PAni/Fe3O4/PVA composites nanofibers were further characterized by X-ray diffraction spectra (XRD) and Four Transformation infrared spectra (FTIR). The XRD pattern shows the presence of PAni nanotubes containing Fe3O4 nanoparticles by indicating peaks at 23.4⁰ and 35.43⁰ which was further supported by FTIR analysis. Microwave vector network analyzers (MVNA) were used to estimate the microwave absorption properties of the composites nanofibers. The absorption parameters was found to be −6.4 dB at 12.9 GHz within the range of X-band microwave absorption frequency, this reflection loss is attributed to the multiple absorption mechanisms as a result of the improved of impedance matching between dielectric and magnetic loss of the absorbent materials demonstrating that these materials can be used as protective material for electromagnetic radiation.

Keywords

• Microwave absorption properties
• Electrospinning
• Nanofiber composites
• Morphology