A facile one-pot synthesis of Fe2Si nanoparticles attached SWCNTs for enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption performance

Fe2Si nanoparticles attached single-walled carbon nanotubes (Fe2Si-SWCNTs) have been mass produced by a direct current arc discharge in H2/Ar. The Fe2Si-SWCNTs nanocomposites with different Si-Fe ingredient atomic ratios have a network nanostructure and provide good electrical conductivity and impedance matching. The relative complex permittivity and permeability can be adjusted by synergetic interactions between Fe2Si nanoparticles and SWCNTs in the frequency range of 2–18 GHz. The reflection loss of Fe2Si-SWCNTs nanocomposites reaches −49.9 dB at 8.08 GHz when the filler loading is only 20 wt. % in paraffin, and the effective absorption bandwidth is up to 4.32 GHz (5.92–10.24 GHz) corresponding to a thickness of 3.4 mm. This work not only paves the way for practical application of SWCNTs but also provides a kind of efficient electromagnetic wave absorber.