Light weight RGO/Fe3O4 nanocomposite for efficient electromagnetic absorption coating in X-band

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/magnetite (Fe3O4) nanocomposite has been synthesized by an in-situ facile hydrothermal method. The XRD pattern reveals the development of nanocomposite in which both phases are coexistent. Raman Spectroscopy shows the main characteristics peaks of D and G bands at 1349 cm−1 and 1595 cm−1 for graphitic structures. The intensity ratio (ID/IG) is also calculated, which indicate the degree of defects in the material. This ratio (ID/IG), increases from 0.84 for GO to 0.91 for RGO/Fe3O4 nanocomposite and promotes the defects which are beneficial for electromagnetic (EM) absorption. The SEM image depicts that, Fe3O4 spherical nanoparticles are dispersed over the surface of graphene sheets and provide a thermal conducting path for heat dissipation between different layers of graphene. The EM absorption properties have been analyzed at 2–18 GHz of RGO and RGO/Fe3O4. The addition of proper content of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles in RGO sheets improved the Reflection Loss (RL) from − 13.5 dB to − 20 dB at a frequency of 9.5 GHz. Moreover, due to magnetic loss and interfacial polarization, the effective bandwidth increases from 2.5 GHz to 3.8 GHz at a coating thickness of 1.5 mm. Hence this light weight nanocomposite is an excellent material for strong EM absorption in X-band.