A novel Fe₃O₄/ZnO/PANI/rGO nanohybrid material for radar wave absorbing

In this study, a novel RAM utilizing Fe₃O₄, ZnO, polyaniline (PANI), and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in the form of nanohybrid is invented, namely Fe₃O₄/ZnO/PANI/rGO nanohybrid. In this study, the effects of the rGO fraction in Fe₃O₄/ZnO/PANI/rGO composition on the radar absorbing performance were investigated. Meanwhile, exploring the quality of the nanohybrid sample, such as the crystal structure, functional groups, morphology, magnetic properties, and reflection loss was also examined carefully. It shows that two crystalline phases of Fe₃O₄ and ZnO, as well as amorphous structures of PANI and rGO are formed independently, indicating successful nanohybrid formation. In this case, PANI functioned as a binder for Fe₃O₄ and ZnO, and thus, it could infiltrate the pores of rGO. Fe₃O₄/ZnO/PANI/rGO nanohybrid possesses superparamagnetic properties with decreasing saturation magnetization as rGO composition increases. Nevertheless, rGO enhanced the radar absorption performance with a maximum reflection loss of −8.57 dB at 11.10 GHz. In this present research, the synergy of combination between the magnetic and dielectric losses in the Fe₃O₄/ZnO/PANI/rGO nanohybrid is discussed together with plausible strategies to obtain highly efficient RAM.