Fabrication of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide/hollow copper ferrite composite aerogels as lightweight, thin and high-efficiency electromagnetic wave absorbers in the X band

Baohua Liu; Jing Xu; Zongli Wan; Ruiwen Shu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.08.112

Fabrication of nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide/hollow copper ferrite composite aerogels as lightweight, thin and high-efficiency electromagnetic wave absorbers in the X band

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Dec 15;628(Pt B):712-720. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.08.112. Epub 2022 Aug 19.

Authors

Baohua Liu¹, Jing Xu¹, Zongli Wan², Ruiwen Shu³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Mining Response and Disaster Prevention and Control in Deep Coal Mines, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China; School of Chemical Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China.
² School of Chemical Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Mining Response and Disaster Prevention and Control in Deep Coal Mines, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China; School of Chemical Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China; Institute of Environment-friendly Materials and Occupational Health, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Wuhu 241003, China. Electronic address: rwshu@aust.edu.cn.

PMID: 36027781
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.08.112

Abstract

The development of lightweight, thin and high-efficiency electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers remains a huge challenge in the field of EM absorption. Graphene aerogels with three-dimensional (3D) network structure and low bulk density have been considered as potential EM absorbing materials. In this work, nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide/hollow copper ferrite (NRGO/hollow CuFe₂O₄) composite aerogels were fabricated by the three-step method of solvothermal reaction, hydrothermal self-assembly and calcination treatment. The as-prepared composite aerogels had a unique 3D hierarchical porous network structure. Furthermore, results demonstrated that the EM absorption performance of attained composite aerogels could be improved by adjusting the calcination temperature. Notably, the obtained composite aerogel calcined at 400.0 ℃ exhibited the best EM absorption performance. When the loading ratio was as low as 15.0 wt%, the minimum reflection loss reached up to -54.5 dB with a matching thickness of 2.0 mm, and the maximum effective absorption bandwidth of 5.0 GHz could be achieved under an extremely thin thickness of 1.6 mm. Additionally, the probable EM attenuation mechanisms of attained composite aerogels were proposed. The results of this work could be helpful for developing graphene-based 3D composites as lightweight, thin and high-efficiency EM wave absorbers.

Keywords: Composite aerogel; Copper ferrite; Electromagnetic wave absorption; Reduced graphene oxide; Three-dimensional network.