Dependence of reduction degree on electromagnetic absorption of graphene nanoribbon unzipped from carbon nanotube

Transformation of 2D Flakes to 3D Hollow Bowls: Matthew Effect Enables Defects to Prevail in Electromagnetic Wave Absorption of Hollow rGO Bowls

High-efficiency electromagnetic (EM) wave (EMW)-absorbing materials have attracted extensive scientific and technical interest. Although identifying the dominant EM loss mechanism in dielectric-loss materials is indispensable, it is challenging due to a complex synergism between dipole/interfacial polarization and conduction loss. Modulation of defects and microstructures can be a possible approach to determine the dominant EM loss mechanism and realize high-efficiency absorption. Herein, 2D reduced graphene oxide (rGO) flakes are integrated into a 3D hollow bowl-like structure, which increases defect sites (i.e., oxygen vacancy and lattice defect) and reduces the stacked thickness of rGO. Despite their lower stacked thicknesses, the hollow rGO bowls with more defects exhibit lower conductivities but higher permittivities. Accompanied by the transformation from 2D flakes to 3D hollow bowls, the dominant EM loss mechanism of rGO transforms from conduction loss to defect-induced polarization. Furthermore, the defect engineering and structural design endow rGO with well-matched impedance and strong EMW-absorbing capacity. A minimum reflection loss of -41.6 dB (1.3 mm) and an effective absorption bandwidth of 4.8 GHz (1.5 mm) is achieved at a filler loading of 5 wt%. This study will provide meaningful insights into the development of materials with superior EMW-absorbing performances via defect engineering and structural design.

Two-Dimensional Metal Organic Framework derived Nitrogen-doped Graphene-like Carbon Nanomesh toward Efficient Electromagnetic Wave Absorption

Functional two-dimensional (2D) graphene-like carbon has the potential to be a good electromagnetic wave absorbing material due to its good electronic properties, but the preparation of 2D carbon via metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) derivation method is still a bottleneck. Herein, we fabricated ultrathin nitrogen-doped graphene-like carbon nanomesh (N-GN) via thermal exfoliation of 2D MOF (Zn-ZIF-L) directly. The species of the chloride salt that exfoliated Zn-ZIF-L have an effect on the nitrogen content, graphitization degree, pore size and specific surface area of N-GN. The Zn-ZIF-L derived N-GN exfoliated by KCl and LiCl simultaneously has the optimum reflection loss of -54 dB only with the thickness of 2.1 mm and the filler loading of 3 wt%. The excellent electromagnetic wave absorbing property is attributed to its favorable structure, micro-meso-macropores, N heteroatoms, abundant heterogeneous graphene-like carbon nanomesh interfaces and defects. Our simple and low-cost preparation process facilitates the large-scale production and application for electromagnetic wave absorbing material of functionalized graphene-like carbon.

Multifunction lignin-based carbon nanofibers with enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption and surpercapacitive energy storage capabilities

It is difficult for green sustainable lignin-based materials to simultaneously obtain efficient electromagnetic wave absorption (EMWA) and supercapacitive energy storage (SCES), which has not yet been reported. Herein, the light-weight lignin-based carbon nanofibers (LCNFs) with proper pore size, well graphitization degree, and heteroatom doping were tailored through electrospinning and carbonization processes. Interestingly, the graphitization degree and porous structure of LCNFs could be easily adjusted by changing the activating temperature, and the higher conductivity was achieved for preparing LCNFs at higher activating temperature due to the differences in the crystal size and activating degree of LCNFs. As a result, in the field of EMWA, the LCNFs-950 exhibited the minimum reflection loss (RL) value was -41.4 dB and the absorbing frequency was 9.05 GHz at 2.5 mm thickness, which meant this absorbent could absorb and/or dissipate more than 99.9% of incident electromagnetic wave (EMW). Furthermore, the LCNFs-950 also exhibited excellent SCES ability. In two-electrode system, the optimal LCNFs-950 symmetric supercapacitor specific capacitance reached 139.4 F/g at a current density of 0.5 A/g, meanwhile, the energy density was 41.4 Wh/kg at a power density of 3500 W/Kg. These multifunctional features of LCNFs will be highly promising for the next-generation environmental remediating materials.

A new precursor to diversify BCN architectures with enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption

Hexagonal BCN (h-BCN) is considered to be a promising dielectric ceramic material with a hybrid B-C-N structure and an electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing material with tenable properties. H-BCN bulk and microtube architectures are simultaneously synthesized by precursor pyrolysis method using BCl₃, aniline (AN) and diethylenetriamine (DETA) as the raw material. By analyzing its electromagnetic parameters, the effective absorption bandwidth of the sample cracking at 900 °C with the proportion of raw materials (DETA:AN = 1:1) can be up to 7.2 GHz, and the minimum reflection loss can reach -43.6 dB at 7.92 GHz with a thickness of 3.5 mm. Moreover, the EMW absorbing property of the ceramic can be tuned by adjusting the ratio of monomers, pyrolysis temperature, and cooling rates.