Synthesis of Fe3O4/polypyrrole/polyaniline nanocomposites by in-situ method and their electromagnetic absorbing properties

Fe3O4/PPy/PANI (Fe3O4/polypyrrole/polyaniline) nanocomposites with excellent microwave absorbing properties have been successfully synthesized and characterized systematically. In detail, Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared via an environmental friendly, modified co-precipitation method. Afterward, two conductive polymers, PPy and PANI, were deposited onto the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles by in-situ polymerization of pyrrole and aniline. PPy and PANI was “glued” by the strong affinity between the carbonyl groups of PPy and the conjugated chains of PANI. The obtained Fe3O4/PPy/PANI nanocomposites have been found to possess excellent microwave absorbing property with the absorption bandwidth of 10.7 GHz (6.7-17.4 GHz) and maximum reflection loss at 10.1 GHz (−40.2 dB). It proves that the combination of ultra-small Fe3O4 nanoparticles with two different conductive polymers have a great potential in the application of microwave absorbing materials.