Preparation of porous Fe2O3 nanorods-reduced graphene oxide nanohybrids and their excellent microwave absorption properties

Qi Hu,Ren Xie,Shuijie Qin,Zhongchen Bai,Hongbo Cai,Xiaosi Qi,Youwei Du,Yang Jiang,Wei Zhong,Liu Long

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11131-1

Abstract

In this paper, α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs)-reduced graphene oxide (RGO), α-FeOOH nanorods (NRs)-RGO and porous α-Fe2O3 NRs-RGO could be selectively synthesized by hydrothermal method. The investigations indicated that the obtained α-Fe2O3 NPs, α-FeOOH NRs and porous α-Fe2O3 NRs were either attached on the surface of RGO sheets or coated uniformly by the RGO sheets. And the as-prepared nanohybrids exhibited excellent microwave absorption performance, which was proved to be ascribed to the quarter-wavelength matching model. The optimum reflection loss (RL) values for α-Fe2O3 NPs-RGO, α-FeOOH NRs-RGO and porous α-Fe2O3 NRs-RGO were ca. −32.3, −37.4 and −71.4 dB, respectively. Moreover, compared to the obtained α-Fe2O3 NPs-RGO and α-FeOOH NRs-RGO, the as-prepared porous α-Fe2O3 NRs-RGO nanohybrids exhibited enhanced microwave absorption properties because of their special structure and synergetic effect. The possible enhanced microwave absorption mechanisms were discussed in details. Our results confirmed that the geometrical morphology had a great influence on their microwave absorption properties, which provided a promising approach to exploit high performance microwave absorbing materials.

Highlights

In recent decades, with the rapidly extensive application of wireless equipment, radar systems and local area networks, etc, electromagnetic (EM) interference, EM radiation and EM compatibility have become the serious problems, which are harmful to human and the operation of electronic devices, and influence the development of modern military[1,2,3,4]
We develop a simple strategy to selectively synthesize heterostructured α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs)-reduced graphene oxide (RGO), α-FeOOH nanorods (NRs)-RGO and porous α-Fe2O3 NRs-RGO nanohybrids by controlling the categories of the initial reactant, respectively
We find that the as-synthesized heterostructured nanohybrids improve greatly their microwave absorption capabilities compared with those of the single composition of FeOOH or graphene oxide (GO)

Summary

Introduction

With the rapidly extensive application of wireless equipment, radar systems and local area networks, etc, electromagnetic (EM) interference, EM radiation and EM compatibility have become the serious problems, which are harmful to human and the operation of electronic devices, and influence the development of modern military[1,2,3,4]. Various hybrids have been investigated in order to reach the targets over the past years[12,13,14,15,16] Among these hybrids, carbon-based hybrids own advantages such as low density, good chemical stability and high complex permittivity value, which may improve the microwave absorption properties and EM interference shielding effect[17,18,19]. Different categories of G-based nanohybrids have been developed to improve microwave absorption properties in the recent years[26,27,28,29]. We find that the as-synthesized heterostructured nanohybrids improve greatly their microwave absorption capabilities compared with those of the single composition of FeOOH or graphene oxide (GO). Compared to α-Fe2O3 NPs-RGO and α-FeOOH NRs-RGO, the as-synthesized porous α-Fe2O3 NRs-RGO nanohybrids exhibit enhanced microwave absorption performance

Methods

Results

Conclusion