Microwave electromagnetic and absorption properties of SiO2/C core/shell composites plated with metal cobalt

A facile method has been developed to fabricate magnetic core/shell SiO2/C/Co sub-microspheres via the pyrolysis of SiO2/PANI (polyaniline) and electroless plating method. The electromagnetic parameters of these SiO2/C and SiO2/C/Co composites were measured and the microwave reflection loss properties were evaluated in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. The results show that the dielectric loss of SiO2/C composite increases with the increase of carbonization temperature and the magnetic loss enhances due to the deposition of cobalt on the SiO2/C submicrospheres. The reflection loss results exhibit that the microwave absorption properties of the SiO2/C/Co composites are more excellent than those of SiO2/C composites for each thickness. The maximum effective absorption bandwidth (reflection loss <= -10 dB) arrives at 5.0 GHz (13.0-18 GHz) for SiO2/C/Co composite with 1.5 mm of thickness and the minimum reflection loss value is -24.0 dB at 5.0 GHz with 4.0 mm of thickness. The microwave loss mechanism of the SiO2/C/Co composites was also discussed in this paper.