To clear away the harmful effects of the increment of electromagnetic pollution, high performance absorbers with appropriate impedance matching and strong attenuation capacity are strongly desired. In this study, a chain-like PPy aerogel decorated with MOF-derived nanoporous Co/C (Co/C@PPy) has been successfully prepared by a self-assembled polymerization method. With a filler loading ratio of 10 wt %, the composite of Co/C@PPy could achieve a promising electromagnetic absorption performance both in intensity and bandwidth. An optimal reflection loss value of −44.76 dB is achieved, and the effective bandwidth (reflection loss lower than −10 dB) is as large as 6.56 GHz. Furthermore, a composite only loaded with 5 wt % Co/C@PPy also achieves an effective bandwidth of 5.20 GHz, which is even better than numerous reported electromagnetic absorption (EA) materials. The result reveals that the as-fabricated Co/C@PPy—with high absorption intensity, broad bandwidth, and light weight properties—can be utilized as a competitive absorber.
Currently, electromagnetic pollution management has gained much attention due to the various harmful effects on wildlife and human beings. Electromagnetic absorbers can convert energy from electromagnetic waves into thermal energy. Previous reports have demonstrated that reduced graphene oxide (rGO) makes progress in the electromagnetic absorption (EA) field. But the high value of permittivity of rGO always mismatches the impedance which results in more electromagnetic wave reflection on the surface. In this work, sandwich-like rGO/CuS/polypyrrole (PPy) nanoarchitectures have been synthesized by a facile two-step method. The experimental result has shown that a paraffin composite containing 10 wt.% of rGO/CuS/PPy could achieve an enhanced EA performance both in bandwidth and intensity. The minimum reflection loss (RL) value of −49.11 dB can be reached. Furthermore, the effective bandwidth can cover 4.88 GHz. The result shows that the as-prepared rGO/CuS/PPy nanoarchitectures will be a promising EA material.