Only Ku-band microwave absorption by Fe3O4/ferrocenyl-CuPc hybrid nanospheres

A novel kind of hybrid nanospheres made of Fe3O4 and ferrocenyl-CuPc (FCP) was prepared via effective solvothermal method and performed microwave absorptivity only in Ku-band with minimum reflection loss of -25 dB at 16.0 GHz corresponding to absorbing about 99.7% content of microwave. Scanning electron microscopy images indicated that the nanospheres with uniform particle size distribution have the average diameter of 135 nm. Due to the synergistic reaction between magnetic ferrocenyl-CuPc and Fe3O4, the hybrid nanospheres showed novel electromagnetic properties. The real part of complex permittivity of hybrid nanospheres remains stable in the range of 0.5-12.0 GHz and has a large fluctuation at 16.5 GHz. Moreover, the dielectric loss of hybrid nanospheres also appeared a sharp peak at 16.3 GHz with the value of 2.7. The specific gravity of hybrid nanospheres is about 2.08. On the basis of these results, the novel hybrids are believed to have potential applications in the microwave absorbing area in Ku-band. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.