Intercalating Hybrids of Sandwich-like Fe₃O₄–Graphite: Synthesis and Their Synergistic Enhancement of Microwave Absorption

Abstract

Rational design on the components and microstructures of microwave-absorbing materials can pave the way for upgrading their performances in electromagnetic pollution prevention. In this study, Fe3O4–graphite intercalation hybrids (Fe3O4-GIH) with unique sandwich-like microstructure are fabricated by a molten salt route and subsequent temperature reduction. It is found that the gaseous FeCl3 molecules at high temperature can diffuse into the graphite interlayer plane to obtain FeCl3-GIH, and the intercalated FeCl3 is then transferred into Fe3O4 nanoparticles under high temperature reduction, which can prop open the graphite interlayer, thus achieving sandwich-like Fe3O4-GIH. Therefore, one-step synthesis can give perfect features, such as transformation of graphite into graphene sheets, introduction of a magnetic component, and construction of multiple interfaces, which are a benefit to the microwave absorption (MA). As a result, the maximum reflection loss of the as-obtained Fe3O4-GIH can be up to −51 dB at 4.3 GHz with a matching thickness of 4.8 mm. Furthermore, the MA performances can be tuned by regulating the interlayer spacing of Fe3O4-GIH. The excellent microwave absorption performance may attribute to the synergistic effect between Fe3O4 nanoparticles with magnetic loss, graphite with dielectric loss, and novel interfacial polarization originating from the sandwich-like Fe3O4-GIH. Additionally, it can be supposed that these sandwich structures are more beneficial for scattering the incident electromagnetic wave due to their large spacing and porous features.

Three-Dimensional Ordered Mesoporous Carbon Spheres Modified with Ultrafine Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Enhanced Microwave Absorption Properties

“…9 , which means the microwave absorption performance of ZnO/OMCS nanocomposites can be tuned by changing the ZnO NPs content. The significant feather of ZnO/OMCS nanocomposites such as lightweight, strong absorption and wide band width shows it great potential as excellent microwave absorbing materials [ 14 ].

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“…Carbon materials are representative dielectric loss medium [ 10 – 14 ]. Nanostructured carbon materials, such as carbon black, carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and porous carbon, have attracted great interests as microwave absorbing materials for their low density and special physical and chemical properties [ 15 – 19 ].…”

Hierarchical Fe3O4‐derived organic/inorganic hybrids constructed by modified bio‐inspired functionalization: efficient adsorbents for water‐soluble methylene blue and mechanism

“…Among many magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanospheres with unique properties have been widely studied in catalysis, ferrofluids, magnetic storage, separation, target drug delivery, etc. [13][14][15] Specially, magnetite nanospheres as adsorbents have exhibited promising applications in wastewater treatment because of their high surface area, non-toxicity, chemical stability and easy magnetic manipulation. [16][17][18] However, the active adsorption sites will be reduced in water owing to the agglomeration of Fe 3 O 4 , thus reducing their adsorption capacity.…”

Amorphous Bimetallic Nanowires with High-Performance Microwave Absorption: A Case for FeCo Nanowires

“…1,3,5 It prompts the motivation of constructing amorphous nanostructures with abundant defects to induce additional surface/interface polarizations via doping and encapulsating. 30,31 Due to embedding secondary mediums, crystal lattices of the absorber are distorted to a®ect the unit cell volume. 32 It eventually induces the°uctuation of dielectric constants for tuning dielectric loss.…”