Enhanced microwave absorption properties of graphite nanoflakes by coating hexagonal boron nitride nanocrystals

We report herein the synthesis of a novel hexagonal boron nitride nanocrystal/graphite nanoflake (h-BNNC/GNF) composite through a wet-chemistry coating of graphite nanoflakes and subsequent in-situ thermal treatment process. The characterization results of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectrum, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrate that h-BNNCs with diameter of tens of nanometers are highly crystallized and anchored on the surfaces of graphite nanoflakes without obvious aggregation. The minimum reflection loss (RL) value of the h-BNNC/GNF based absorbers could reach -32.38 dB (>99.99% attenuation) with the absorber thickness of 2.0 mm. This result is superior to the other graphite based and some dielectric loss microwave absorption materials recently reported. Moreover, the frequency range where the RL is less than -10 dB is 3.49-17.28 GHz with the corresponding thickness of 5.0-1.5 mm. This reveals a better electromagnetic microwave absorption performance of h-BNNC/GNFs from the X-band to the K-u-band. The remarkable enhancement of the electromagnetic microwave absorption properties of h-BNNC/GNFs can be assigned to the increase of multiple scattering, interface polarization as well as the improvement of the electromagnetic impedance matching of graphite nanoflakes after being coated with h-BNNCs. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.