Facile design of cubic-like cerium oxide nanoparticles decorated reduced graphene oxide with enhanced microwave absorption properties

Herein, reduced graphene oxide/cerium oxide (RGO/CeO2) hybrid nanocomposites were synthesized by a facile one-pot hydrothermal strategy. Results of morphology observations revealed that the as-prepared hybrid nanocomposites showed improved dispersion of particles with the increasing of contents of RGO and numerously cubic-like CeO2 nanoparticles were uniformly loaded on the crumpled surfaces or edges of thinly flake-like RGO. Moreover, the effects of contents of RGO and concentrations of oxygen vacancies on the microwave absorption properties of RGO/CeO2 hybrid nanocomposites were carefully investigated. It was found that complexing of RGO notably enhanced the microwave absorption properties of CeO2 nanoparticles, and the microwave absorption properties of as-prepared hybrid nanocomposites could be optimized by facilely modulating the contents of RGO. Remarkably, the obtained hybrid nanocomposites with the content of RGO of 4.1 wt% exhibited the best microwave absorption performance, i.e. the minimum reflection loss reached -49.2 dB at 5.2 GHz with a matching thickness of 4.46 mm, and effective absorption bandwidth achieved 4.1 GHz (13.4-17.5 GHz) with a thin thickness of merely 1.7 mm. Besides, the underlying microwave absorption mechanisms of as-prepared hybrid nanocomposites were proposed. It was believed that our results could shed light on the design and fabrication of graphene-based hybrid composites as high-efficient microwave absorbers. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.