In Situ Preparation of Cobalt Nanoparticles Decorated in N-Doped Carbon Nanofibers as Excellent Electromagnetic Wave Absorbers

Electrospinning and annealing methods are applied to prepare cobalt nanoparticles decorated in N-doped carbon nanofibers (Co/N-C NFs) with solid and macroporous structures. In detail, the nanocomposites are synthesized by carbonization of as-electrospun polyacrylonitrile/cobalt acetylacetonate nanofibers in an argon atmosphere. The solid Co/N-C NFs have lengths up to dozens of microns with an average diameter of ca. 500 nm and possess abundant cobalt nanoparticles on both the surface and within the fibers, and the cobalt nanoparticle size is about 20 nm. The macroporous Co/N-C NFs possess a hierarchical pore structure, and there are macropores (500 nm) and mesopores (2–50 nm) existing in this material. The saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercivity (Hc) of the solid Co/N-C NFs are 28.4 emu g–1 and 661 Oe, respectively, and those of the macroporous Co/N-C NFs are 23.3 emu g–1 and 580 Oe, respectively. The solid Co/N-C NFs exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave absorbability, and a minimum reflection loss (RL) value of −25.7 dB is achieved with a matching thickness of 2 mm for solid Co/N-C NFs when the filler loading is 5 wt %, and the effective bandwidth (RL ≤ −10 dB) is 4.3 GHz. Moreover, the effective microwave absorption can be achieved in the whole range of 1–18 GHz by adjusting the thickness of the sample layer and content of the dopant sample.