J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2022, Vol. 126: 266-274.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2022.02.051

Special Issue: Composites 2022 Electronic materials 2022

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Porous carbon/Fe composites from waste fabric for high-efficiency electromagnetic wave absorption

Jin-Bo Cheng, Hai-Bo Zhao(), Ai-Ning Zhang, Yan-Qin Wang, Yu-Zhong Wang()   

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center for Eco-Friendly and Fire-Safety Polymeric Materials (MoE), State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, National Engineering Laboratory for Eco-Friendly Polymer Materials (Sichuan), College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
  • Accepted:2022-04-22 Published:2022-11-01 Online:2022-11-10
  • Contact: Hai-Bo Zhao,Yu-Zhong Wang
  • About author:yzwang@scu.edu.cn (Y.-Z. Wang).
    *haibor7@163.com (H.-B. Zhao),
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52122302);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(51991351);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(51790504);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST. Financial support by the 111 Project is sincerely acknowledged(B20001)

Abstract:

Nowadays, a large amount of waste fabrics has brought huge environmental and resource problems, while the traditional recycling routes are downcycling with low efficiency and complex separation processes. Herein, we demonstrate a green and facile route to up-recycle waste fabrics (cotton-polyester blending or cotton fabrics) into a high-performance microwave absorber. In this design, an assistant coating was deposited onto the fiber surface of the waste fabric through the assembly of tannic acid-Fe2+ (TA-Fe2+), which effectively catalyzed the polymer fiber into highly graphitized porous carbon fiber at high temperatures. Meanwhile, the Fe nanoparticles from the reduction of Fe2+ ions were evenly embedded on the surface of porous carbon fibers. Consequently, the resultant porous carbon/Fe composites with hierarchical microstructures displayed excellent microwave absorption performances. Typically, the microwave absorber from waste polyester-cotton blended fabric could reach a minimum reflection loss (RL) of -50.5 dB at a thin coating thickness of 1.7 mm, and the minimum RL from waste cotton fabric absorber reached -47.1 dB at a thickness of 2.5 mm. This work provides a new idea to convert waste fabrics into high value-added microwave absorbing materials in a simple and environmentally friendly way, which will help reuse resources and protect the environment.

Key words: Up recycling, Microwave absorption, Waste fabrics, Thin thickness