Fabrication and microwave absorption performances of hollow-structure Fe3O4/PANI microspheres

The hollow polyaniline (PANI) microspheres were prepared by controlling the mass ratio of the aniline to polystyrene (PS) via a template method, and Fe 3 O 4 /PANI composite microspheres have been fabricated by blending the hollow PANI microspheres with Fe 3 O 4 magnetic particles. The effects of the mass ratio of aniline/PS on the microwave absorption performances of Fe 3 O 4 /PANI microspheres were investigated. It was found that the value of minimum reflection loss (RL min ) of the microspheres were respectively −14.06, −22.34 and −24.3 dB, corresponding to the mass ratio of aniline/PS of 1:1.5, 1:3, and 1:6. In addition, when the mass ratio of aniline/PS was 1:6, with the thickness of 1.5 and 2.0 mm, the bandwidth below −10dB were respectively 2.48 GHz (15.52–18 GHz) and 4.64 GHz (11.04–15.68 GHz), indicating that the Fe 3 O 4 /PANI microspheres could be a potential electromagnetic wave absorbing material in X (8–12 GHz) and Ku (12–18 GHz) bands.