Lightweight polyaniline coated fly ash magnetic beads/nickel powders composites with promising electromagnetic waves absorption performance

The utilization of fly ash (FA) and the treatment of electromagnetic pollution have become important contents of current environmental management. A new type of electromagnetic waves absorption material was obtained by using fly ash magnetic beads (FAB), nickel powders (Ni) and polyaniline (PANI) in this study. A novel core–shell PANI@FAB/Ni composite was successfully prepared by interfacial polymerization of PANI on the surfaces of FAB and Ni. The structure, composition, morphology, magnetic property and electromagnetic parameters of composites were investigated in detail. Due to the synergistic effect of several different loss mechanisms, which improved attenuation capacity and impedance matching, the optimal reflection loss of PANI@FAB/Ni at 5.52 GHz was −67.07 dB (thickness of 5.48 mm). Meanwhile, the effective absorption bandwidth of PANI@FAB/Ni is 4.24 GHz with a thin matching thickness of 1.98 mm. This novel electromagnetic waves absorption material made of FAB has potential commercial prospects.