Interfacial design of Ti3C2Tx/TiO2/CoFe2O4/Co3Fe7 nanocomposites for enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds 2024-05, Vol.983, p.173768, Article 173768
• Main Authors: Bei, Hanzhang, Yu, Yue, Wu, Lian, Shu, Xugang, Liao, Bing, Yin, Guoqiang, Pang, Hao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electromagnetic absorption; Heterogeneous interface; MXene; Nanocomposites
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2024.173768

The electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) capabilities of nanocomposites are significantly influenced by their interface structure, and one useful method for improving the EMA properties is to create a variety of heterogeneous interfaces. In view of this, a Ti3C2Tx with misaligned stacking structure (ST) was achieved through a suitable oscillation-ultrasonication treatment firstly in this work. Then the CoFe2O4 (CFO) nanoparticles with magnetism were in-situ grown in the interlayers of the Ti3C2Tx. Finally, the obtained Ti3C2Tx-CoFe2O4 (ST-CFO) nanocomposite was thermally reduced to generate a multicomponent nanocomposite Ti3C2Tx/TiO2/CoFe2O4/Co3Fe7 (ST-CFO-A) with abundant heterogeneous interfaces. It is found that the oscillation, ultrasonication and in-situ growth processes ensure sufficient contact between ST and CFO, and the thermal reduction treatment leads to the formation of two new phases, i.e., TiO2 with low-dielectric constant and Co3Fe7 with high permeability, resulting in the successful construction of rich heterogeneous interfaces. As a result, the ST-CFO-A exhibits outstanding electromagnetic absorbing performance of −49.04 dB (9.4 GHz, thickness of 1.6 mm), which is 24.52 and 1.86 times higher than that of the ST and ST-CFO, respectively. The goal of this work is to improve the electromagnetic absorption capabilities of Mxene-based materials by creating many heterogeneous interfaces through interfacial design. •Ti3C2Tx with a misaligned stacking structure was prepared.•Heterogeneous interfaces were constructed in the Ti3C2Tx by thermal reduction.•The Mxene-based heterostructure realized a RLmin of −49.04 dB at 9.4 GHz.