Silicon-coated fibrous network of carbon nanotube/iron towards stable and wideband electromagnetic wave absorption

Materials that can absorb electromagnetic (EM) wave have garnered increased attention in recent years due to their potential to mitigate the ever increasing environmental pollution by EM waves. Thanks to recent advances in micro/nanofabrication, a variety of magnetic metal-based EM absorbers have been reported. The design and synthesis of EM absorbers that exhibit efficient and wide-band absorption at small thicknesses, however, remains elusive. Here we report the design of fibrous nanostructures consisting of magnetic iron (Fe) nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which exhibits a wide-band EM absorption (3.8 GHz) while maintain the thickness at 1.2 mm. In our work, we created a novel core-shell structure by immersing the highly fibrous CNT -Fe structure into solid-state silicon (SiO 2 ) matrix. Finally, the SiO 2 -coated CNT -Fe structures exhibit good stability against air-induced oxidation and acid corrosion while maintaining high EM absorption. Overall, the results reported in this study present new avenues to absorb EM from ambient air. We believe that our work elevates the utility of EM absorbers to real-world applications such as anti-acid and oxidation ability. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.