Flexible and ultra-thin graphene@MXene@Fe3O4 composites with excellent microwave absorption performance

Abstract

Fabric-based microwave absorbing materials are favored due to their excellent flexibility and lightweight. However, the complex preparation method and unsatisfactory absorbing properties limit its mass production and practical application. Herein, a graphene@MXene@Fe3O4 wave-absorbing slurry was prepared and coated on pre-treated aramid non-woven fabric by screen printing, to obtain flexible and efficient wave-absorbing modified fabric. Based on the high dielectric loss capacity of graphene and MXene, the magnetic loss can be successfully managed by modifying the Fe3O4 content of the slurry to modulate the impedance matching, reflection loss (RL), and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB). The graphene@MXene@Fe3O4 modified fabric demonstrated impressive microwave absorbing properties after multi-component integration and interface optimization. Notably, under an ultra-thin thickness of 1.5 mm, the reflection loss (RLmin) value of the modified fabric reaches −47.6 dB under the X band. This work also establishes the way for the development of flexible and ultra-thin microwave absorbers utilizing a straightforward approach, which has a wide range of applications in the field of flexible absorbing materials.