Hollow polypyrrole nanorods via molecular aggregates sacrificial strategy for broadband electromagnetic waves absorption

Polypyrrole (PPy) has aroused great interest due to its excellent physicochemical properties in recent years, especially in the area of electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA). A large number of researches have shown that the regulation of micromorphology has great influence on the EMA performance. Compared with other micromorphology, the hollow structure can significantly promote the EMA performance. In this study, we fabricated hollow PPy (HPPy) nanorods using self-assembly template that can be removed easily. The results show that the dielectric constant of HPPy can be controllably adjusted by tuning the wall thickness, and the HPPy exhibits better EMA performance than the shapeless PPy. Specifically, the minimum reflection loss (RL) can reach − 54.94 dB, and the largest effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) reaches 7.36 GHz under filler loading ratio of 10 wt%. Impedance matching and multiple scattering are considered to be major factors for the improvement of EMA property. This research gives a general method for the preparation of novel hollow electromagnetic absorbing materials.