Low-energy-consumption fabrication of porous TPU/graphene composites for high-performance microwave absorption and the influence of Fe3O4 incorporation

Fabrication of lightweight, thin thickness, broad bandwidth, strong absorption, and lower filler loading materials are of great interest for microwave absorption. Herein, porous thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) /graphene composites were successfully prepared via a facile vapor induced phase separation (VIPS) technique. Compared with TPU foam, the introduction of graphene endows the composites favorable microwave absorption ability. The optimized composite foam with 3 wt% graphene (TPU/G-3) exhibits extraordinary wave attenuation capacity with a minimum reflection loss (RLmin) value of − 51.86 dB and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 4.28 dB (12.6–17.0 GHz) at the thickness of 3.1 mm. Microwave attenuation mechanism indicates that the remarkable microwave absorption ability derives from conduction loss, dipole polarization loss, interfacial polarization loss as well as multiple scattering. Incorporating the same amount of Fe3O4 as graphene to TPU/G-3 endows the composites with the RLmin of − 58.96 dB, which is slightly better than TPU/G-3 due to more favorable impedance matching. However, the matching thickness becomes much higher to about 8.0 mm, which is mainly attributed to bigger pores caused by Fe3O4. Moreover, the VIPS strategy provides insight into the fabrication of facile and lightweight polymer-based porous electromagnetic absorption materials.