Development of multiscale Fe/SiC–C fibrous composites for broadband electromagnetic and acoustic waves absorption

The explosive development of wireless communication devices and modern electronic machines raises concerns about potential human health threats from their extensive emission of electromagnetic waves (EMW) and acoustic noise. However, the insufficient lossy medium, monotonous structure, and large fiber diameters limit the broadband EMW and noise absorption of traditionally used fibrous materials. Here, we developed electro-spun Fe-doped and SiC nanoparticle-loaded carbon fibrous membranes (Fe/SiC–C) and their multiscale composites for effective broadband EMW and acoustic waves absorption performance. The Fe/SiC–C fibrous membranes show an excellent EMW absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 6.98 GHz at a thickness of 2.45 mm. Integrating a macroscale double-layer periodic cuboid design, we fabricated Fe/SiC–C fibrous metastructure composites that exhibit broadband EMW absorption with EAB of 15.2 GHz ranging from 2.8 GHz to 18 GHz at a total thickness of 8.45 mm. Additionally, using a simple roll-up method, we assembled the Fe/SiC–C fibrous membranes into a bulk sound absorber with a superior noise reduction coefficient (NRC) of 0.57 at a thickness of 30 mm. The multiscale development of carbon-based fibrous composites enables their potential application to electromagnetic and acoustic waves absorption.