Rational construction of ZnFe2O4 decorated hollow carbon cloth towards effective electromagnetic wave absorption

As typical magnetic materials, ferrites and their composites play dominant roles in the design of high-performance electromagnetic wave (EW) absorber. Solvent thermal method is the most popular route for synthesizing ferrites, while systematical comparison research about the influence of reaction solvents of solvent thermal process on ferrite based material’s EW absorption performance has rarely been carried out. Thus in this work, we adopted cotton fabric as raw material, and synthesized two kinds of zinc ferrite decorated hollow carbon cloth (CC@ZnFe2O4) composites through solvent thermal reaction where deionized water and ethylene glycol was adopted as reaction solvents, respectively. After comprehensive and detailed comparison of the structures and performances of these two ferrite composites, the CC@ZnFe2O4 synthesized in deionized water phase possesses an ideal optimal absorption efficiency for EW, that is the minimum reflection loss (RL min) of -46 dB, while the effective absorption bandwidth of CC@ZnFe2O4 composites synthesized in ethylene glycol phase is wider (4.9 GHz). The synergistic effect of impedance matching, interface polarization, magnetic resonance, and multiple reflections co-determined the ideal EW absorption performances of these two samples. The research can not only provide new guidance for the secondary utilization of waste textiles, but also become an important reference for the preparation of ferrite based high-performance EW absorbers through solvent thermal method.