Dependence of electromagnetic wave absorption properties on the topography of Ni anchoring on reduced graphene oxide

Abstract Specific topographic Ni anchoring on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composites show an astronomical potential as effective wave absorbers due to the synergistic electromagnetic loss effects. Herein, Ni/rGO composites with different topography were successfully prepared via hydrothermal in-situ reduction method. The structure and morphology characteristics revealed that particle-like, chain-like, coin-like and flower-like Ni were closely anchored onto rGO, respectively. The electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) performance revealed that chain-like Ni/rGO exhibited the optimal reflection loss of -43.7 dB with a thickness of 1.8 mm as well as the EAB of 6.1 GHz at 2.0 mm among all samples due to the good impedance match and the synergistic dielectric and magnetic losses. Besides, one conclusion can be drawn that excellent magnetic coupling effect and impedance matching were the main reasons for significantly improving the EMA performance. Considering the systematic dependence of morphology on EMA, this work provides a perspective for designing high-performance absorbing materials.