The
present work reports on the fabrication of a lightweight microwave
absorber comprising MnCo2O4 prepared from the
urea complex of manganese (Mn)/cobalt (Co) and nitrogen-doped reduced
graphite oxide (NRGO) by facile hydrothermal method followed by annealing
process and characterized. The phase analysis, compositional, morphological,
magnetic, and conductivity measurements indicated dispersion of paramagnetic
MnCo2O4 spherical particles on the surface of
NRGO. Our findings also showed that Mn, Co–urea complex, and
GO in the weight ratio of 1:4 (NGMC3) exhibited maximum shielding
efficiency in the range of 55–38 dB with absorption as an overall
dominant shielding mechanism. The reflection loss of NGMC3 was found
to be in the range of −90 to −77 dB with minima at −103
dB (at 2.9 GHz). Such outstanding electromagnetic wave absorption
performance of NRGO/MnCo2O4 nanocomposite compared
to several other metal cobaltates could be attributed to the formation
of percolated network assisted electronic polarization, interfacial
polarization and associated relaxation losses, conductance loss, dipole
polarization and corresponding relaxation loss, impedance matching,
and magnetic resonance to some extent.