Light weight RGO/Fe3O4 nanocomposite for efficient electromagnetic absorption coating in X-band

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanocomposite has been synthesized by an in-situ facile hydrothermal method. The XRD pattern reveals the development of nanocomposite in which both phases are coexistent. Raman Spectroscopy shows the main characteristics peaks of D and G bands at 1349 cm −1 and 1595 cm −1 for graphitic structures. The intensity ratio (I D /I G ) is also calculated, which indicate the degree of defects in the material. This ratio (I D /I G ), increases from 0.84 for GO to 0.91 for RGO/Fe 3 O 4 nanocomposite and promotes the defects which are beneficial for electromagnetic (EM) absorption. The SEM image depicts that, Fe 3 O 4 spherical nanoparticles are dispersed over the surface of graphene sheets and provide a thermal conducting path for heat dissipation between different layers of graphene. The EM absorption properties have been analyzed at 2–18 GHz of RGO and RGO/Fe 3 O 4 . The addition of proper content of Fe 3 O 4 magnetic nanoparticles in RGO sheets improved the Reflection Loss (RL) from − 13.5 dB to − 20 dB at a frequency of 9.5 GHz. Moreover, due to magnetic loss and interfacial polarization, the effective bandwidth increases from 2.5 GHz to 3.8 GHz at a coating thickness of 1.5 mm. Hence this light weight nanocomposite is an excellent material for strong EM absorption in X-band.