Exchange coupling behavior and microwave absorbing property of the hard/soft (BaFe12O19/Y3Fe5O12) ferrites based on polyaniline

•BaFe12O19/Y3Fe5O12 composites were prepared by a one-step sol–gel method.•The polyaniline was coated on the surface via in situ polymerization method.•The maximum reflection loss of the composites is −40.8 dB at 9.9 GHz.

The hard/soft BaFe12O19/Y3Fe5O12 composites were successfully prepared by a one step sol–gel method. Then the in-situ polymerization method was used to make them coated with polyaniline. The phase composition, morphology and electromagnetic properties of the composites were characterized by X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer and vector network analyzer. The results show that the exchange-coupling effect between BaFe12O19 and Y3Fe5O12 has a great positive effect on the microwave absorbing property and the maximum reflection loss of the composite is −40.8 dB at 9.9 GHz.