Strong and thermostable polymeric graphene/silica textile for lightweight practical microwave absorption composites

Since various criteria including effective absorption intensity, broad absorption bandwidth, sufficient mechanical properties and excellent stability are required to meet the benchmark in practical service, here we propose a novel strategy to fabricate strong and thermostable polymeric graphene/silica textile composites for practical microwave absorption applications. For achieving homogeneous configuration, a unique silica textile coupled with freeze-drying method is employed as the critical factor in the formation of the polymeric composites, allowing reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to in situ form three-dimensional conductive frameworks. With the co-existence of silica textiles and thermoset polymers, such integrated bi-matrices offer the composites with substantial reinforcement in the mechanical properties and thermal stability. As expected, the as-fabricated lightweight composites (similar to 1 g/cm(3)) present strong tensile strength of 40 MPa and high thermal stability beyond 225 degrees C (95% mass retention in air), coupled with a microwave absorption peak at -36 dB and effective absorption in the full X-band at a low filler loading (4.1 wt% RGO). Implication of the results suggests that the excellent overall performance allows such novel polymeric composites for practical microwave absorption applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.