J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2026, Vol. 243: 139-148.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2025.05.003

• Research article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Strengthened epoxy nanocomposites with binary fillers of magnetite@polyaniline and carbon nanofiber for high-performance thermal stability electromagnetic wave absorption

Juanna Rena, Yukun Sunb, Mukun Hec, Mohamed H. Helald, Wenhao Donga,b, Xiuyun Mab, Jiang Guob, Jianfeng Zhub, Eman A. Ayobe, Ben Bin Xuf, Hassan Algadig, Zhanhu Guof,*, Hua Houa,*   

  1. aSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China;
    bSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Green Preparation and Functionalization for Inorganic Materials, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi’an 710021, China;
    cShaanxi Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Science and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China;
    dCenter for Scientific Research and Entrepreneurship, Northern Border University, Arar 73213, Saudi Arabia;
    eDepartment of Chemistry, Khurmah University College, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia;
    fDepartment of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK;
    gDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Najran University, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia
  • Received:2025-03-19 Revised:2025-05-01 Accepted:2025-05-01 Published:2026-02-01 Online:2025-05-12
  • Contact: *E-mail addresses: zhanhu.guo@northumbria.ac.uk (Z. Guo), houhua@tyus.edu.cn (H. Hou).

Abstract: To address the electromagnetic wave pollution issue induced by widespread applications of electronic devices and 5 G technology, multifunctional epoxy composites reinforced with both 0-D magnetite (Fe3O4)@polyaniline with a core-shell structure and 1-D carbon nanofibers were prepared by the in situ polymerization method. The nanocomposites exhibit good mechanical properties, thermal stability, and electromagnetic wave absorption performance. The reflection loss can be -55.73 dB at 7.17 GHz, and the effective absorption bandwidth can reach 1.96 GHz at 3.2 mm. The excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performance is related to the magnetic loss (eddy current loss, magnetic resonance) and dielectric loss (interfacial polarization loss, dipolar polarization loss, and conduction loss). Moreover, when the mass ratio of 0-D Fe3O4@polyaniline to 1-D carbon nanofiber is 48:1, the tensile strength is improved to 47.8 MPa compared with epoxy composites with only Fe3O4@polyaniline particles. Meanwhile, the thermal stability and thermal conductivity of the multifunctional epoxy composites were systematically analyzed as well. This work provides a new idea to prepare the multifunctional epoxy composites with excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performance.

Key words: 0-D Fe3O4@polayniline, 1-D carbon nanofiber, Electromagnetic wave absorption