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

• We synthesized GN/PEDOT/CoFe2O4 by a facile two-step method.
• The GN/PEDOT/CoFe2O4 nanocomposites had a ferromagnetic behavior.
• The average diameter of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles was in the range of 10–20 nm.
• The GN/PEDOT/CoFe2O4 exhibited excellent microwave absorption properties.

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 10–20 nm. 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 − 43.2 dB at 9.4 GHz and the absorption bandwidths exceeding − 10 dB were 3.1 GHz with a coating layer thickness of 2.4 mm. 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.

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