Novel nanocomposites of cobalt ferrite covalently-grafted on graphene by amide bond as superior electromagnetic wave absorber

Abstract Unique covalently bonded cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 )/graphene nanocomposites are successfully fabricated via an amino-ester-amide reaction process. The morphology, component, functional groups and electromagnetic properties are detected by Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectra (FTIR), Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). Compared to non-covalently bonded nanocomposites, the covalently bonded CoFe 2 O 4 /graphene nanocomposites have outstanding electromagnetic wave absorption properties. We found that the maximum reflection loss value reached at −55.2 dB and the absorption bandwidth with reflection loss below −10 dB was about 5.4 GHz at 1.7 mm of thickness. The efficiency is attributed to the introduction of amide bonds in the nanocomposites. As a stable carrier channel, amide bonds can promote the migration rate of electrons and binding degree between CoFe 2 O 4 and graphene nanosheets, which provide a crucial impact on electromagnetic parameters and polarization modes of materials, thus improving the absorption capacity of electromagnetic waves. It can be inferred that the nanocomposites have a broad application prospect in the field of electronic instruments, aerospace, military radars and national defense security fields.