Superb electromagnetic wave-absorbing composites based on large-scale graphene and carbon nanotube films

• Published in: Scientific reports 2017-05, Vol.7 (1), p.2349-10, Article 2349
• Main Authors: Li, Jinsong, Lu, Weibang, Suhr, Jonghwan, Chen, Hang, Xiao, John Q., Chou, Tsu-Wei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/357/995; 639/925/918/1052; Absorption; Electromagnetic radiation; Humanities and Social Sciences; Iron oxides; multidisciplinary; Nanotubes; Physical properties; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02639-7

Abstarct Graphene has sparked extensive research interest for its excellent physical properties and its unique potential for application in absorption of electromagnetic waves. However, the processing of stable large-scale graphene and magnetic particles on a micrometer-thick conductive support is a formidable challenge for achieving high reflection loss and impedance matching between the absorber and free space. Herein, a novel and simple approach for the processing of a CNT film-Fe 3 O 4 -large scale graphene composite is studied. The Fe 3 O 4 particles with size in the range of 20–200 nm are uniformly aligned along the axial direction of the CNTs. The composite exhibits exceptionally high wave absorption capacity even at a very low thickness. Minimum reflection loss of −44.7 dB and absorbing bandwidth of 4.7 GHz at −10 dB are achieved in composites with one-layer graphene in six-layer CNT film-Fe 3 O 4 prepared from 0.04 M FeCl 3 . Microstructural and theoretical studies of the wave-absorbing mechanism reveal a unique Debye dipolar relaxation with an Eddy current effect in the absorbing bandwidth.