Microwave absorption enhancement of nickel cobalt phosphides by decorating on reduced graphene oxide

Herein, NiCoP nanoparticles decorated on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were synthesized through a two-step hydrothermal-phosphorization route as enhanced microwave absorbers. Microstructure investigations indicate that NiCoP nanoparticles are uniformly anchored on the surface of rGO. Compared with the bare NiCoP, NiCoP/rGO nanocomposites reveal clearly improved microwave absorbing performance. The strongest reflection loss (RL) values of NiCoP/rGO hybrid absorber can reach 20.61 dB at 6.43 GHz with a matching thickness of 4.4 mm, and a broad effective absorption bandwidth (RL < -10 dB) of 4.13 GHz (13.87-18 GHz) can be obtained at only 2.0 mm, while the RL values of the pure NiCoP cannot reach 10 dB in the entire measurement frequency range. This improvement of microwave absorption is ascribed to the polarization, interface interaction and synergistic effect between NiCoP and rGO nanosheets. NiCoP/rGO nanocomposites are expected to be novel microwave absorption materials with high microwave absorption properties.