In-situ polymerization and EMI shielding property of barium hexaferrite/pyrrole nanocomposite

•Polypyrrole was successfully coated on barium ferrites by insitu polymerization.•Average particle size of 50 nm was achieved for both barium ferrites and polypyrrole.•Up to 60 dB total EMI shielding effectiveness was observed in microwave region. Barium hexaferrite-polypyrrole (BHF-Ppy) nanoparticles were synthesized by in-situ polymerization of pyrrole monomer in the presence of BHF. BHF was first successfully prepared through the coprecipitation method using barium and iron nitrate as raw materials. The microstructure characterization and performance testing were carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and particles size analyses (PSA) facilities. The experimental results indicate that the diameter of BHF nanoparticles was approximately 50 nm. Polymer-based nanocomposite films (0.23–0.25 mm/230–250 µm) were prepared by dispersing BHF, Ppy, and BHF-Ppy nanoparticles with different wt% and analyzed for DC conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding in two different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum i.e. near-infrared (NIR) (700–2500 nm) and microwave region (0.1–20 GHz). Dielectric properties like dielectric constant and dielectric loss were also suggested the high EMI shielding effectiveness. Less than 1% transmission was observed in the whole NIR region by using high wt% of BHF-Ppy and less than −50 dB total shielding effectiveness was observed in the whole microwave region (0.1–20 GHz).