Advanced polymer composites containing organic-inorganic fillers are gaining increasing attention due to their multifunctional applications. In this work, poly(styrene-butadiene-styrene) (SBS) composites containing magnetite-functionalized graphene (FG) were prepared by a dissolution − dispersion − precipitation solution method. Evidently, through morphology studies, amounts of FG were well distributed in the SBS matrix. Improvements in neat SBS properties with respect to FG loading in terms of thermal stability, creep recovery and mechanical properties are presented. As expected, the addition of FG improved the thermal stability and mechanical properties of the composites. The yield strength and Young's modulus of the SBS increased by 66% and 146% at 5 wt% filler loading which can be attributed to the reinforcing nature of FG. Similarly, an increase in the storage and loss modulus of the composites showed a reinforcement effect of the filler even at low concentration. The results also showed the significant role of FG in improving the creep and recovery performance of the SBS copolymer. Creep deformation decreased with filler loading but increased with temperature.

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Magnetite (Fe3O4)-graphene nanohybrids having three different weight ratios of magnetite to graphene were synthesized by a facile in-situ deposition method. The combination of dielectric properties of graphene and magnetic properties of magnetite makes the nanohybrids an ideal choice of material for microwave absorption applications. In regards to that, the electromagnetic properties and microwave absorbing characteristics were investigated in a frequency range of 1-18 GHz. The reflection loss (RL) reaches a minimum of-40.44 dB at 6.84 GHz with a thickness of 7 mm for the sample containing 73 wt·% of Fe3O4. The bandwidth corresponding to the RL below-10 dB is 7.05 GHz. The as-prepared Fe3O4-graphene nanohybrids showed good microwave absorption ability in the low frequency band (C-band) which can be ascribed to improved impedance matching characteristics, enhanced interfacial polarizations as well as the magnetic loss contributions. Moreover, the frequency related to minimum RL could be tuned by varying the weight ratios of magnetite to graphene.

Abstract. An in-situ deposition technique was used in the synthesis of Ni-Zn ferrite-graphene (NZFG) nanohybrids. The XRD patterns revealed the presence of cubic spinel structure of Ni-Zn ferrite (NZF) nanoparticles with good crystallinity and small crystallite sizes. The SEM images showed NZF nanoparticles were uniformly deposited on graphene sheets. The effect of different loading amounts of NZF nanoparticles in the nanohybrids was also investigated by tuning the mass ratio of FeCl3 and expanded graphite (EG). The magnetic measurements showed ferromagnetic behaviour with low coercivity. Improvements in saturation magnetization of the nanohybrids can be seen with increasing mass ratio of FeCl3:EG. The microwave absorption properties were determined based on the measured relative complex permittivity and permeability. For the nanohybrids, the minimum reflection loss (RL) obtained is -37.57 dB at 7.54 GHz and the absorbing bandwidth in which the RL is less than -10 dB is 7.30 GHz when the NZF content was 79 wt% at 7 mm thickness. The enhancement in the minimum RL was due to the synergistic effect between NZF nanoparticles and graphene.