PANI and Fe3O4 content-dependent electromagnetic wave absorbing properties in PANI@Fe3O4:MoS2 hybrid nanocomposite

Electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials play a pivotal role in stealth applications and the protection of vulnerable electronic devices. Because the effective absorption of EMW over a wide range in the spectrum remains constrained by technical limitations in materials engineering, enhancing EMW absorption performance of a material system is imperative for the advancement of future stealth technologies. In this context, this study aims to design lightweight, thermally stable, and multifunctional hybrid EMW absorbers with synergistic dielectric, magnetic, and conductive loss mechanisms. The structure is constructed by integrating hexagonal (2H) MoS2 nanosheets, which exhibit semiconducting behavior, with Fe3O4 nanoparticles known for their magnetic properties, as well as polyaniline (PANI), a well-known conductive polymer. Experimental findings indicated that hybrid systems containing 2H-MoS2 nanosheets decorated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles having 23 nm average particle size, along with their PANI-modified counterparts, exhibited improved EMW absorption performance. P25F15M60 offered a relatively broad effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 7.01 GHz at 4 mm, where the reflection loss (RL) dropped to - 23.3 dB near 12.5 GHz. Notably, P50F2.5M47.5 surpassed this with a minimum RL of - 27.6 dB and a slightly broader EAB of 8.03 GHz at a reduced thickness of 2 mm and frequency of 13.2 GHz. Experimental findings have demonstrated that hybrid nanocomposites, exemplified by PANI@Fe3O4:MoS2, distinguished by their lightweight composition and high temperature stability, possess the capacity to absorb up to 99% of EMWs across a broad frequency spectrum. These results not only confirm the effective combination of dielectric and magnetic components, but also demonstrate superior performance compared to many previously reported absorbers. This highlights the great potential of PANI@Fe3O4:MoS2 systems for next-generation stealth and electromagnetic absorption technologies.