Enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption based on Ti3C2Tx loaded nickel nanoparticles via polydopamine connection

Abstract

A novel Ni/NC@Ti3C2Tx composite-absorbing material was prepared through a solvothermal process and annealing treatment. Polydopamine (PDA) is utilized not only as a low-density connecting medium to promote the dispersion growth of nickel nanoparticles on Ti3C2Tx, but also as a nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) source in the carbonization process to generate multilevel electromagnetic interfaces and enhance polarization loss. The impedance matching of the material can be optimized by adjusting the ratio of the precursor Ni (magnetic) to the PDA@Ti3C2Tx (electrical) materials and the paraffin filling degree. The effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of the optimized Ni/NC@Ti3C2Tx-2 reached 4.65 GHz with a thickness of 1.5 mm. The minimum reflection loss (RLmin) reached −47.34 dB under 40 wt% filling amounts in paraffin. The dramatic improvement in the microwave absorption (MA) performance of the composites is attributed to the conductive loss caused by the special structure, the enhanced interfacial polarization between the electromagnetic materials, and the excellent impedance matching. This work provides an optimized magnetic modification approach toward MXene and facilitates the further development of MXene-based MA materials.