A self-assembled spongy-like (S) ultralight (ρ ≈ 140 mg cm −3 ) aerogel was fabricated through polypyrrole (PPy) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Firstly, the dispersed graphene oxide (GO) were locked homogeneously in those chains formed by the gelation of PPy. Then a hydrothermal process was employed to reduce GO to RGO. With a trace content of RGO (0.43 wt% in aerogel), the electromagnetic absorption (EA) performance had been significant improved. Only with a very low filler loading (10 wt%), the S-PPy/RGO aerogel based composite could reach an effective EA bandwidth (below − 10 dB) of 6.76 GHz, and the highest reflection coefficient reached − 54.4 dB at 12.76 GHz. It was demonstrated that this aerogel material can be considered as an effective route to design a light weight and high performance EA material. Furthermore, the 3D-PPy/RGO aerogel also showed a suitable pollution treatment performance with different solvents and dyes. materials, such as intercalated graphite, 14 carbon nanotubes (CNTs), 15,16 porous carbon, 17,18 carbon nanopowders, 19 carbon fibers, 20 graphene, 21 and reduced graphene oxide (RGO). 22 Benefit from the nano-structure, these above mentioned materials can reach an ideal EA performance with a fitting filler loading ratio in composites. However, metal oxide or sulfide based EA composites can't overcome high filler loading ratio, even reach 70.0 wt%; 5 pure carbon materials based EA composites can't get a sufficient broad effective EA bandwidth (below − 10 dB) with low matching thickness, though they give low loading ratio in composites (less than 20.0 wt%).Taking RGO for instance, it is a kind of two dimensional (2D) carbon material that can be synthesized from graphene oxide (GO) using chemical, 23 thermal, 24 optical, 25,26 and hydrothermal 27 methods. Dielectric loss and the low density of RGO enable it to be used as EA material. With a suitable preparation process, pure RGO based composite can display an effective EA bandwidth of 4.32 GHz with a thickness of 4 mm. 22 The development of functional RGO modified with other nanoparticles also represents an important advance to improve EA performance both in width and intensity, meanwhile reduce the thickness of the composites, such as Fe Furthermore, core-shell structures, for example, Fe 3 O 4 @ZnO, 44 SiO 2 @Fe 3 O 4 , 45 and Fe 3 O 4 @Fe, 46 can also improve the EA performance of RGO.Besides the above mentioned EA materials, recently, the intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) with low densities, such as PEDOT, PANi and polypyrrole (PPy), are also great interest as EA materials and EA performance are closely related to the structure. 46 However, composite only loaded with single ICP is not enough to produce sufficient electric loss, which limits its application in broadband absorber. Although the EA performance can be improved through hybridizing other semiconductors or RGO is only trace content (0.43 wt%) in aerogel to match the impedance with air, which makes this aerogel cheap enough for large-scaled use. Furthermore, the S-PP...

First report on the excellent electromagnetic absorption and electromagnetic interference shielding performances of helical conducting polymer nano-structures.

A facile self-assembled polymerization method has been used to form pyrrole to an ultralight three-dimensional (3D) polypyrrole (PPy) aerogel. It exhibits an effective electromagnetic absorption (EA) bandwidth (deeper than −10 dB), which was characterized as 6.2 GHz when the filler loading is only 7 wt. % in paraffin based composite. This 3D-PPy aerogel can be considered as a light weight, low adjunction, thin thickness, and high performance EA material.