Synthesis and microwave absorption property of polyaniline incorporated with different weight ratios of MoSe2/MMT/rGO

In this study, microwave absorbers based on the conductive polymer polyaniline (PANI) were synthesized with a controllable nano-composite architecture. Initially, MoSe 2 /MMT nanoparticles with semi-conductive-dielectric characteristics were incorporated into the PANI matrix, denoted as (A0). In the next step, to optimize the microwave absorption performance, a ternary nano-composite of MoSe 2 /MMT/rGO with different weight ratios (35, 50, and 70 wt%) was incorporated into the PANI matrix, resulting in samples A1, A2, and A3, respectively. This smart composite formed a semi-conductive-dielectric-conductive network. The results indicated that sample A2 exhibited the best performance due to the favorable synergy among its components. In this sample, the conductive rGO nanosheets and PANI polymer chains acted as bridges to form a continuous conductive network, while the MoSe 2 /MMT nanoparticles created local inhomogeneities and multiple interfacial boundaries, thereby significantly enhancing interfacial polarization, conduction loss, and multiple scattering. These combined mechanisms within a hierarchical heterogeneous structure effectively strengthened wave absorption. Ultimately, the optimized absorber (A2) achieved a maximum reflection loss of − 91.50 dB at a thin thickness of 1.6 mm, with an effective bandwidth of 2.41 GHz. This achievement clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the design paradigm based on the combination of zero-dimensional semi-conductive-dielectric and two-dimensional conductive materials with complementary electronic dimensions in a conductive polymer matrix for the development of thin and efficient microwave absorbers.