article · Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
Combining magnetite with porous carbon derived from spinach stems produces an effective composite material for absorbing electromagnetic waves. Conventional iron-based absorbers suffer from high density, high production costs, and environmental drawbacks, whilst bio-carbon alternatives have traditionally provided limited wave-absorbing capability. By integrating magnetite with spinach-derived carbon through hydrothermal and calcination methods, the composite balances dielectric properties with magnetic conductivity. Structural and magnetic characterisation confirms a porous network with a minimum reflection loss of minus 48.81 decibels and an effective absorption bandwidth of 4.73 gigahertz at the optimal material ratio. This strong microwave absorption arises from synergistic effects including multiple internal reflections, Debye relaxation, and interfacial polarisation. The material offers a low-cost, straightforward fabrication route for lightweight shielding.
Electromagnetic interference can disrupt critical telecommunications and consumer electronics. Conventional wave-absorbing materials are often heavy, toxic, and expensive to manufacture. Transforming biomass such as spinach waste into functional porous carbon provides a greener, cheaper foundation for lightweight shielding that protects sensitive civilian and defence electronic equipment without adding excessive weight.
The composite is aimed at applications requiring electromagnetic wave absorption, with potential users across civilian electronics and defence sectors. The synthesis method uses accessible biomass and standard processing, which may ease scale-up. However, based on the material synthesis and laboratory characterisation reported, the technology is at an early stage of research and remains far from immediate market deployment.
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The high density, high cost, and environmental pollution hinder the application of iron-based electromagnetic wave-absorbing materials. Although bio-carbon is a green and lightweight dielectric wave-absorbing material, the wave-absorbing performance of bio-carbon is still limited. This work successfully combined magnetite Fe3O4 with porous carbon derived from spinach stem using hydrothermal and calcination methods. This process optimizes the matching of the dielectric constant and magnetoconductivity of the as prepared composite material, resulting in a significant improvement in electromagnetic microwave absorption capacity. XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, VSM and EMW absorption network analyzer are used to detect and characterize the samples. The composite material shows a excellent minimum reflection loss value of -48.81 dB and an efficacious absorption bandwidth of 4.73 GHz at the optimal raw material ratio. The tests also show the porous structure of the sample with the coercivity and saturation magnetization of 29.36 Oe and 10.75 emu/g, respectively. The test results indicate that the excellent electromagnetic wave absorption is due to the synergistic effect of multiple reflection, Debye relaxation, and interfacial polarization. This Fe3O4-bio-carbon composite is cheap and simple to prepare, and it also has excellent wave absorption performance. Therefore, it shows great application potential in civilian and military electromagnetic wave absorption fields.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2024.134149
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