Flexible electromagnetic wave absorbing composite based on 3D rGO-CNT-Fe3O4 ternary films

Abstract Geometry-controllable three-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (rGO) network layers on carbon nanotube (CNT)-Fe3O4 films are assembled by electrophoresis. The fabricated microstructure consists of an interconnected network of graphene and carbon nanotubes with magnetic Fe3O4 particles as the fast transport channel of charge carriers for high electrical conductivity. Building upon this unique network structure, we demonstrate the superb potential for its application as electromagnetic wave absorbing material. The minimum reflection loss of the CNT film-Fe3O4-rGO-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite with 4 layers is −50.5 dB and absorption bandwidth at −10 dB is 5.7 GHz, respectively, the thickness of this material is only 1.42 mm. Long-term cycling tests in bending and twisting deformations show >93% retention of EM wave absorption after 2000 cycles. These results suggest that such CNT film-Fe3O4-rGO composite is very promising for next generation portable electronics and wearable devices.