Ti3C2Tx MXene/graphene oxide/Co3O4 nanorods aerogels with tunable and broadband electromagnetic wave absorption

The biggest challenge for electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) devices is to simultaneously achieve high reflection loss (RL), wide absorption bandwidth, and ultrathin thickness. According to the EMA mechanism of the electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbers, exceptional EMA properties can be achieved by a combination of three-dimensional (3D) cellular structure and synergistically electric/magnetic losses of the electromagnetic energy. In this study, an MXene/graphene oxide (GO)/Co3O4 nanorods (NRs) (MGCR) aerogel composed of two-dimensional (2D) MXene and GO nanosheets, and one-dimensional (1D) Co3O4 NRs was developed to achieve desirable EMA properties. Here, MXene and GO manipulate the dielectric loss, and the Co3O4 NRs provide magnetic loss. The MGCR aerogel shows excellent EMA performances with an impressive minimum RL (RLmin) of − 71.87 dB at a thickness of 2.07 mm and an outstanding maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 6.88 GHz with a density of 9 mg cm−3. And the RL ≤ − 10 dB is obtained in S-band (2–4 GHz), C-band (4–8 GHz), X-band (8–12 GHz), and Ku-band (12–18 GHz) by adjusting the thickness between 2 and 6 mm. In addition, computer simulation technology (CST) was employed to verify the radar cross-section (RCS) reduction of the MGCR in the far-field. The strongest RCS reduction value of the MGCR aerogel achieves up to 33.07 dBm2 at a scattering angle of 90°. This research provides a novel strategy for designing MXene-based electromagnetic absorbers by coupling 1D anisotropically magnetic materials with dielectric materials.