Investigation on the broadband electromagnetic wave absorption properties and mechanism of Co3O4-nanosheets/reduced-graphene-oxide composite

A cobaltosic-oxide-nanosheets/reduced-graphene-oxide composite (CoNSs@RGO) was successfully prepared as a light-weight broadband electromagnetic wave absorber. The effects of the sample thickness and amount of composite added to paraffin samples on the absorption properties were thoroughly investigated. Due to the nanosheet-like structure of Co3O4, the surface-to-volume ratio of the wave absorption material was very high, resulting in a large enhancement in the absorption properties. The maximum refection loss of the CoNSs@RGO composite was–45.15 dB for a thickness of 3.6 mm, and the best absorption bandwidth with a reflection loss below–10 dB was 7.14 GHz with a thickness of 2.9 mm. In addition, the peaks of microwave absorption shifted towards the low frequency region with increasing thickness of the absorbing coatings. The mechanism of electromagnetic wave absorption was attributed to impedance matching of CoNSs@RGO as well as the dielectric relaxation and polarization of RGO. Compared to previously reported absorbing materials, CoNSs@RGO showed better performance as a lightweight and highly efficient absorbing material for application in the high frequency band.