Electromagnetic wave absorption properties of reduced graphene oxide encapsulated iron nanoparticles

•Scalable process to synthesize Fe/RGO leading to efficient charge transfer at Fe-RGO interface.•Reflection loss properties can be tuned in X-band using Fe/RGO by varying the thickness of composite.•Composite is effective for radar absorption enhancement. Here, we report a magnetic reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite consisting of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and iron nanoparticles in the range of 15–20 nm. The nanocomposite has been prepared by impregnation of RGO with iron acetylacetonate (Fe(acac)3) using acetone, followed by thermal decomposition of iron precursor loaded on RGO at 800 °C in an inert atmosphere. Magnetic reduced graphene oxide (Fe/RGO) was characterized using SEM, TEM, XRD, Raman and VSM. Fe/RGO epoxy nanocomposite shows enhanced electromagnetic properties compared to Fe epoxy nanocomposite due to enhanced interfacial and electric polarization. The hybrids of Fe nanoparticles and RGO in this work are potential to serve as an attractive electromagnetic absorption materials.