Enhanced microwave absorption performance of MOF-derived hollow Zn-Co/C anchored on reduced graphene oxide*

Composite materials assembled by metal/carbon nanoparticles and 2D layered flakes can provide abundant interfaces, which are beneficial for high-performance microwave absorbers. Herein, Zn-Co/C/RGO composites, composed of Zn-Co metal-organic framework-derived Zn-Co/C nanoparticles and reduced graphene oxide (RGO), were obtained through a facile method. The multilayer structure was due to the introduction of hollow Zn-Co/C nanoparticles in the RGO sheets. Zn-Co/C nanoparticles provided abundant polarization and dipole centers on the RGO surface, which enhanced the microwave absorption abilities. Different concentrations of RGO were introduced to optimize impedance matching. The minimum reflection loss ( R L ) of Zn-Co/C/RGO with a thickness of 1.5 mm reached –32.56 dB with the bandwidth corresponding to R L at –10 dB, which can reach 3.92 GHz, while a minimum R L of –47.15 dB at 11.2 GHz was also obtained at a thickness of 2.0 mm. The electromagnetic data demonstrate that Zn-Co/C/RGO presented excellent absorption performance and has potential for application in the microwave absorption field.