Hollow N-Doped Carbon Polyhedron Containing CoNi Alloy Nanoparticles Embedded within Few-Layer N-Doped Graphene as High-Performance Electromagnetic Wave Absorbing Material

Magnetic metal nanostructures have exhibited good electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption properties. However, the surface of the nanostructures is easily oxidized upon exposure to air, leading to the bad stability of the EMW absorption properties. We use metal-organic framework structure as a template to fabricate hollow N-doped carbon polyhedron containing CoNi alloy nanoparticles embedded within N-doped graphene (CoNi@NG-NCPs). The atomic ratio of Co/Ni can be tuned from 1:0.54 to 1:0.91 in the hollow CoNi@NG-NCPs. Experimental results demonstrate that the EMW absorption properties of the CoNi@NG-NCPs can be improved through the Ni introduction and increased with an increase of the Ni content. Typically, the minimal reflection loss of the optimal CoNi@NG-NCP can reach -24.03 dB and the effective absorption bandwidth (reflection loss below -10 dB) is as large as 4.32 GHz at the thickness of 2.5 mm. Furthermore, our CoNi@NG-NCPs exhibit favorably comparable or superior EMW absorption properties to other magnetic absorbers. In addition, because the CoNi alloy nanoparticles are coated with N-doped graphene layers, their surface oxidation behavior can be efficiently limited. The mechanism of the enhanced EMW absorption property is relevant to the enhanced dielectric loss and better impedance matching characteristic caused by the Ni incorporation.