Design and electromagnetic wave absorption properties of reduced graphene oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotubes/nickel ferrite ternary nanocomposites

Herein, amphiphilic graphene oxide (GO) was used as the “surfactant” to directly disperse pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in aqueous dispersions and the reduced graphene oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotubes/nickel ferrite (RGO/MWCNTs/NiFe2O4) ternary nanocomposites were further synthesized by a facile one-pot hydrothermal strategy. The structure, compositions, micromorphology and electromagnetic parameters of the ternary nanocomposites were investigated by various analytical techniques. Experimental results revealed that the ternary nanocomposites exhibited the enhanced electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption performance compared with the binary nanocomposite and single NiFe2O4. The minimum reflection loss (RLmin) reached −50.2 dB with a thin thickness of 1.4 mm and effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL ≤ −10 dB) was 5.0 GHz (13–18 GHz). Meanwhile, the EAB could reach 14.64 GHz (91.5% of 2–18 GHz) by facilely adjusting the coating thicknesses from 1 to 5 mm. Furthermore, the possible EMW absorption mechanism was proposed. Besides, the EMW absorption performance was highly tunable by changing the additive amounts of MWCNTs, filler loading ratios and coating thicknesses. Our results could be helpful for designing and developing novel graphene-based high-performance EMW absorbers. [Display omitted] •RGO/MWCNTs/NiFe2O4 ternary nanocomposites were fabricated by a hydrothermal route.•Pristine MWCNTs were directly dispersed into amphiphilic GO aqueous dispersions.•Additive amount of MWCNTs had significant effect on the electromagnetic absorption.•Minimum reflection loss (RLmin) reached −50.2 dB with a thin thickness of 1.4 mm.•Maximum absorption bandwidth achieved 5.0 GHz with a thickness of only 1.6 mm.