Electromagnetic properties and microwave absorption enhancement of Ba_0.85RE_0.15Co₂Fe₁₆O₂₇-polyaniline composites: RE = Gd, Tb, Ho

The Gd-, Tb-, and Ho-doped W-type hexagonal ferrite Ba_0.85RE_0.15Co₂Fe₁₆O₂₇ was fabricated by a facile route of low-temperature sol–gel self-propagating combustion. Furthermore, a combination of dielectric loss phase polyaniline and magnetic loss phase Ba_0.85RE_0.15Co₂Fe₁₆O₂₇ as the microwave absorber in a core-shell architecture has been synthesized. The effect of different lanthanide ions Gd, Tb, and Ho on their microstructure, static magnetic properties, electromagnetic properties, and microwave reflection loss have been systematically studied. Our results show that the Ho-doped ferrite has the low microstructure parameters (a, c, and V) and high saturation magnetization (Ms) attributed to its ionic radius and magnetic moment. Moreover, it was found that the Ho-doped composite exhibited excellent microwave absorbing property with a minimum reflection loss (RL) of about −15.1 dB at 9.4 GHz. The reflection loss of composite increases up to almost triple upon the combination of polyaniline and doped ferrite. Such lightweight and highly effective absorbers via combining the organic and inorganic phase into a core-shell architecture are highly desirable for microwave absorber in various applications.