Two-dimensional Ti3C2Tx MXene-based hybrids-anchored magnetic metal nanoparticles show a huge potential application as effective wave absorbers due to the synergistic electromagnetic (EM) loss effect. In this work, uniform and size-controllable nickel, cobalt, or nickel-cobalt alloy nanoparticles were in situ grown on the surface of MXene via a facile and moderate co-solvothermal method for the first time. As an example, a nickel nanoparticles-anchored MXene (Ni@MXene) hybrid was homodispersed into dielectric polyvinylidene fluoride to develop its EM wave-absorbing capacity to a great extent. As expected, the results showed strong reflection loss (RLmin = -52.6 dB at 8.4 GHz), broad effective absorption bandwidth (EAB = 3.7 GHz including 71% of X-band), low loading (10 wt % Ni@MXene), and thin thickness (3.0 mm). By adjusting the sample thickness, EAB can cover completely the whole X-band with a maximum of 6.1 GHz, showing a huge potential of Ni@MXene hybrid applying as aircraft stealth coating. The mechanism analyses revealed that the excellent impedance matching, magnetocoupling effect, conductance, magnetic loss, and multiple scatterings contribute to the splendid EM wave-absorbing performance of the Ni@MXene hybrid. Considering the excellent overall performance, the Ni@MXene hybrid was identified as a promising candidate for EM wave absorption.
Keywords: 2D Ti3C2Tx nanosheets; electromagnetic wave absorption; magnetic nanoparticles; magnetocoupling effect; synergistic loss effect.