Facile synthesis of a novel flower-like BiFeO3 microspheres/graphene with superior electromagnetic wave absorption performances

In recent years, porous or layered magnetic materials have received increasing attention due to their low density and lightweight. In this work, porous BiFeO3 microspheres and three-dimensional porous BiFeO3 microsphere-reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composite (3D porous BiFeO3/RGO) were prepared by one-step etching processing using pure BiFeO3 particles as precursors. The precursor undergoes dissolution-recrystallization/reduction process, resulting in large amount of BiFeO3 fragments and graphene hybrid product, which forms 3D porous BiFeO3/RGO composite. Electromagnetic (EM) absorption performance measurements exhibit that at low thickness of 1.8 mm, porous BiFeO3/RGO composite can achieve reflection loss (R-L) value up to -46.7 dB and absorption bandwidth (defined by R-L < -10 dB) exceeding 4.7 GHz (from 12.0 to 16.7 GHz), testifying outstanding microwave absorbing performance. Compared with pure porous BiFeO3, improved EM wave absorption ability of as-prepared porous BiFeO3/RGO composite is attributed to interfacial polarization, multiple reflections, scattering, and appropriate impedance matching.