In this work, the magnetic-dielectric core-shell heterostructure composites with the core of Ni submicron spheres and the shell of SnO2 nanorods were prepared by a facile two-step route. The crystal structure and morphology were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). FESEM and TEM measurements present that SnO2 nanorods were perpendicularly grown on the surfaces of Ni spheres and the density of the SnO2 nanorods could be tuned by simply varying the addition amount of Sn(2+) in this process. The morphology of Ni/SnO2 composites were also determined by the concentration of hydrochloric acid and a plausible formation mechanism of SnO2 nanorods-coated Ni spheres was proposed based on hydrochloric acid concentration dependent experiments. Ni/SnO2 composites exhibit better thermal stability than pristine Ni spheres based on thermalgravimetric analysis (TGA). The measurement on the electromagnetic (EM) parameters indicates that SnO2 nanorods can improve the impedance matching condition, which is beneficial for the improvement of electromagnetic wave absorption. When the coverage density of SnO2 nanorod is in an optimum state (diameter of 10 nm and length of about 40-50 nm), the optimal reflection loss (RL) of electromagnetic wave is -45.0 dB at 13.9 GHz and the effective bandwidth (RL below -10 dB) could reach to 3.8 GHz (12.3-16.1 GHz) with the absorber thickness of only 1.8 mm. By changing the loading density of SnO2 nanorods, the best microwave absorption state could be tuned at 1-18 GHz band. These results pave an efficient way for designing new types of high-performance electromagnetic wave absorbing materials.
Keywords: Ni/SnO2; SnO2 nanorods; core-shell; dielectric loss; electromagnetic wave absorption; interfacial polarization.