Surface Modification of Activated Carbon Fibers with Fe3O4 for Enhancing Their Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Property

Abstract

In this study, the porous activated carbon fiber (ACF) is prepared by viscose fiber, and Fe3O4 coating is deposited on the surface of ACF through in situ hybridization to prepare carbon/magnetic electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption materials. Compared with pure Fe3O4 and ACF, the EM wave absorption rate is improved. When the solubility of FeCl3 is 2 mol/L and the thickness of the prepared ACF–Fe3O4(3) EM wave absorption material is 3 mm, the EM wave loss at 10 GHz reaches −44.3 dB and effective EM wave absorption bandwidths ( $\text{reflection}\text{loss}\left(\text{RL}\right)<-10$  dB and $\text{RL}<-20$  dB) reached 4.8 GHz (8.8–13.6 GHz) and 1.1 GHz (9.3–10.4 GHz), respectively. The prepared ACF-based composite material has a light structure and strong absorption bandwidth. Findings can provide references for the research on other EM wave-absorbing materials.