Oxygen vacancies regulated microwave absorption properties of reduced graphene oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotubes/cerium oxide ternary nanocomposite

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds Vol. 819; p. 152944
• Main Authors: Wu, Yue, Shu, Ruiwen, Zhang, Jiabin, Wan, Zongli, Shi, Jianjun, Liu, Yin, Zhao, Guangming, Zheng, Mingdong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 05-04-2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: C band; Cerium oxide; Cerium oxides; Graphene; Hybrid nanocomposites; Matching; Microwave absorbers; Microwave absorption; Multi wall carbon nanotubes; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Oxygen vacancies; Reduced graphene oxide; Thickness; Hybrid nanocomposites; Oxygen vacancies; Microwave absorption; Reduced graphene oxide; Cerium oxide; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2019.152944

Herein, reduced graphene oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotubes/cerium oxide (RGO/MWCNTs/CeO2) ternary nanocomposite was prepared by a facile one-pot hydrothermal route. Micromorphology observations revealed that RGO was wrapped by MWCNTs and numerously cubic-like CeO2 nanoparticles were uniformly loaded on the crumpled surfaces of thinly flake-like RGO and MWCNTs in the ternary nanocomposite. Moreover, the influence of addition of RGO and MWCNTs on the electromagnetic parameters and microwave absorption properties of RGO/MWCNTs/CeO2 nanocomposite was systematically investigated. It was found that the as-prepared ternary nanocomposite exhibited notably enhanced microwave absorption performance compared with RGO/CeO2 binary nanocomposite, MWCNTs/CeO2 binary nanocomposite and pure CeO2 nanoparticles. Remarkably, the obtained ternary nanocomposite displayed the minimum reflection loss (RL) of −59.3 dB in the C-band with a matching thickness of 4.5 mm and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL < −10 dB) of 3.2 GHz with an ultrathin thickness of merely 1.5 mm. Furthermore, the EAB could reach 13.8 GHz (86.3% of 2–18 GHz) by facilely modulating the matching thicknesses from 1.5 to 5 mm. The possible microwave absorption mechanisms of as-prepared nanocomposites were carefully explored and further proposed. Therefore, our results could shed light on designing and fabricating graphene-based hybrid nanocomposites as high-performance microwave absorbers.
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•RGO/MWCNTs/CeO2 nanocomposite was prepared by a facile one-pot hydrothermal route.•Cubic-like CeO2 nanoparticles were uniformly loaded on RGO wrapped by MWCNTs.•Addition of RGO or MWCNTs had notable influence on microwave absorption properties.•The obtained ternary nanocomposite showed strong absorption and thin thickness.•Oxygen vacancy defects were beneficial to enhancing the microwave absorption.