High microwave absorption performance in Nd-substituted BaM/GO through sol-gel and high energy ball milling process

Abstract In this paper, a series of compound materials with different proportions of rare earth neodymium (Nd) doped M-type barium ferrite (BaM) and the mixture Nd-BaM with graphene oxide (GO) are prepared through the sol-gel method and high-energy ball milling route. The surface morphology, composition and electromagnetic properties of those materials are analyzed through XRD, SEM, TG, Raman and the vector network analyzer. It is found that the Nd-BaM particle is adhered on the surface of GO with the nanometer size. The electromagnetic performance can be severely affected by the doping amounts of Nd and the blending amounts of GO. Moreover, the microwave absorption performance of the compounds is studied in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. For Nd0.15-BaM/3%GO, the minimum reflection loss is -82.07 dB at 12.65 GHz and the scope of the effective absorption band is 6.08 GHz with a thickness of 2 mm. Because of its good impedance matching, the interface polarization and electron polarization between Nd-BaM and GO, the electromagnetic wave occurs multiple reflection in this material. Compared with pure BaM or BaM/GO, the Nd substituted BaM/GO has excellent microwave absorption performance, which has a certain prospect in the microwave absorbing field.