Microwave absorption properties of helical carbon nanofibers-coated carbon fibers

Helical carbon nanofibers (HCNFs) coated-carbon fibers (CFs) were fabricated by catalytic chemical vapor deposition method. TEM and Raman spectroscopy characterizations indicate that the graphitic layers of the HCNFs changed from disorder to order after high temperature annealing. The electromagnetic parameters and microwave absorption properties were measured at 2–18 GHz. The maximum reflection loss is 32 dB at 9 GHz and the widest bandwidth under −10 dB is 9.8 GHz from 8.2 to 18 GHz for the unannealed HCNFs coated-CFs composite with 2.5 mm in thickness, suggesting that HCNFs coated-CFs should have potential applications in high performance microwave absorption materials.