Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is widely used
in several
fields because of its excellent conductivity, strong adhesion, easy
synthesis, and good flexibility. However, liquid-phase polymerization
often encounters vast organic solvents and complex postprocessing,
while vapor-phase polymerization suffers from agglomeration of precursors.
Interestingly, when an external magnetic field was carried out and
adjusted, numerous magnetic particles were assembled into different
arrangements, which could effectively overcome particles’ agglomeration.
Herein, magnetic-field-induced vapor-phase polymerization has been
explored to make nanoscale PEDOT layers decorate porous Fe3O4 particles. Tailoring the magnetic field forces can
control the PEDOT loading mass together with their doped levels. Then,
the absorption performance of electromagnetic waves of PEDOT-decorated
porous Fe3O4 particles was optimized by changing
the PEDOT loadings and doped levels. Results indicate that the minimum
reflection loss value can reach −43.4 dB (14.0 GHz) and the
maximum effective absorption bandwidth can extend to 6.49 GHz, which
is broader than that of similar absorbers. Related electromagnetic
parameters reveal that dielectric loss mechanisms mainly include conductive
loss from PEDOT layers, interfacial polarizations from Fe3O4–PEDOT and PEDOT–air/paraffin interfaces,
dipole polarizations between doped counterpart anions and positive
sulfur ions in the PEDOT skeletons, and relaxation loss. Besides,
multiple reflections among numerous particles, abundant scatterings
in the porous structures, and magnetic loss involving natural resonance,
exchange resonance, and eddy current effect also account for the electromagnetic
energy attenuation. Magnetic-field-induced vapor-phase polymerization
is a novel and effective method for preparing PEDOT-decorated magnetic
materials.
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