Covalently bonded Fe3O4@SiO2−reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites as high-efficiency electromagnetic wave absorbers

Abstract

A novel electromagnetic (EM) wave absorber is synthesized by covalently modifying reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles. The results show that after the amidation reaction, magnetic Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles are successfully linked to rGO via amide bonds. The EM wave absorption properties can be adjusted by changing the weight ratio of Fe3O4@SiO2 to rGO. When the ratio is 1:1, the absorber exhibits outstanding absorption performance that the maximum reflection loss (RL) peaks achieve −55.4 dB at 8.48 GHz, −55.4 dB at 8.08 GHz and −52.5 dB at 7.2 GHz with matching thicknesses of 3.5 mm, 3.7 mm and 4.0 mm. The excellent absorption performance can be attributed to good impedance matching and superior attenuation ability. The introduction of amide bonds can act as carrier channels to promote the migration of electrons, change the electron cloud distribution of graphene and adjust EM parameters of absorbers to achieve excellent absorption properties. It provides a new approach to prepare high-efficiency EM wave absorbers.