Fabrication and microwave absorption properties of size-controlled polymer/Fe₃O₄hybrid microsphere based on aggregation-induced emission active polyarylene ether nitrile

The article fabricated novel polymer/magnetic hybrid microspheres via solvothermal method by using ferroferric oxide (Fe₃O₄) and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active polyarylene ether nitrile (PEN) as building components. The PEN was copolymerized through phenolphthalin and AIE-gen (4, 4′-(1, 2-di (4-hydroxyphenyl)-1, 2-diyl) diphenol), wherein AIE-gen endowed the copolymer with AIE effect so that the copolymer could aggregate correspondingly in different solvent/nonsolvent systems and produce fluorescence enhanced. In these experiments, the diameter of Fe₃O₄/PEN hybrid microspheres was controlled by the volume proportion of nonsolvent (ethylene glycol (EG)) and solvent (N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP)) in preparation process based on the aggregation behavior of AIE active PEN. Moreover, the resulted hybrid microspheres also had excellent magnetic and electromagnetic absorption performance. Specifically, they all exhibited a strong reflection loss peak both in the low and high frequency range. Meanwhile, with the change of coating thickness, these hybrid microspheres had a wide wave-absorbing frequency from 5 GHz to16 GHz. The results supported that the hybrid microspheres integrated with magnetism and AIE property will have a wide application in the preparation and improvement of size-controlled inorganic organic nanocomposites.