Two birds with one stone: Graphene oxide@sulfonated polyaniline nanocomposites towards high-performance electromagnetic wave absorption and corrosion protection

Conventional electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing materials can exhibit excellent microwave absorption property. However, their susceptibility to corrosion and high density restrict them used in the harsh marine environments with high humidity conditions. Here, we report graphene oxide@camphorsulfonic acid-doped polyaniline (GO@CSA-PANi) nanocomposites prepared by an in-situ polymerization approach as promising materials for application in both EMW absorption and corrosion protection. Impressively, when applied as EMW absorbers, the as-obtained GO@CSA-PANi nanocomposites show excellent EMW absorbing capacity with broad bandwidth due to the remarkable impedance matching and EMW attenuation characteristics caused by the introduction of chiral CSA-PANi. The reflection loss (RL) and effective bandwidth of the GO@CSA-PANi can reach 48.1 dB and 5.3 GHz with a 2.4 mm matching thickness, respectively. Furthermore, owing to the synergistic effects of GO and CSA-PANi, the water borne epoxy composite coatings with GO@CSA-PANi nanocomposites exhibit long term corrosion resistance. The as-obtained composite coatings at optimized content exhibit a remarkable corrosion protection capability (97.43%) after 168 h of immersion in corrosive medium. The bifunctional nanocomposites could open new avenues towards high-performance electromagnetic wave absorption with corrosion protection.

Automated summary

The GO@CSA-PANi nanocomposites demonstrate excellent EMW absorption performance with high absorption capacity and broadband characteristics, while also exhibiting long-term corrosion resistance capabilities.