An environment friendly method for synthesizing ternary composite comprising water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) fiber, nickel ferrite, and polyaniline: potential electromagnetic interference and good dielectric performance

Fabrication of lightweight conductive composites for high-performance X-band electromagnetic-interference (EMI) shielding material continues to be a formidable technical problem despite of enormous efforts. An effective and creative method for synthesizing a composite of water hyacinth fiber with nickel ferrite and PANI is proposed in this study. The synthesis is carried out via in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization using freshly prepared lime juice as green media. The structural characterizations of the prepared composites are carried out using XRD and FTIR analysis and the formation of the composite is confirmed. Morphological studies are done by SEM and elemental detection by SEM mapping. The thermal stability of the composites is studied by TGA. By analysing DC conductivity, AC conductivity and dielectric characteristics, the performance of the synthesized samples is comprehended. The ternary composite exhibits excellent conductivity in 10^− 3 Scm^− 1 range. The polaron/bi-polaron interaction paradigm can be used to explain the superior conductivity performance of the ternary composite. Using a vector network analyser, experiments on electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding are carried out in the frequency range of 8.2 to 12.4 GHz. The material exhibits an outstanding shielding response showing 20 dB for fiber-ferrite binary composite and 26.6 dB for fiber-ferrite-PANI ternary composite. It is analysed that, the composites are easy to develop, more stable and less hazardous to the environment, and can be used as useful shielding materials.

Graphical Abstract

The graphical representation explains the formation of binary and ternary composites and their applications