Facile-synthesized carbonaceous photonic crystals/magnetic particle nanohybrids with heterostructure as an excellent microwave absorber

In this work, carbonaceous photonic crystals (CPCs) were obtained by the carbonization of butterfly wings, and the CPCs/magnetic particle (Fe3O4 and Fe) nanohybrids with heterostructure were synthesized by a facile single-mode microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images indicated that CPCs exhibited a distinct structure of a periodic network interconnected by ridges and ribs with a highly smooth surface. The magnetic nanoparticles were also uniformly attached on the ridges and ribs of CPCs. The microwave absorption performances of CPCs/Fe3O4 and CPCs/Fe nanohybrids with heterostructure were investigated. The minimum reflection loss (RL) were -49.7 and -31.2 dB for CPCs/Fe3O4 and CPCs/Fe nanohybrids, respectively. The effective bandwidths (RL < -10 dB) were 3.6 GHz (14.4-18.0 GHz) for CPCs/Fe3O4 and 4.1 GHz (13.6-17.7 GHz) for CPCs/Fe nanohybrids. Compared with the pure Fe3O4 and Fe nanoparticles, the microwave absorption performances of CPCs/Fe3O4 and CPCs/Fe nanohybrids were markedly improved. These findings illustrated that the CPCs/magnetic particle nanohybrids with heterostructure can be used as an excellent microwave absorber. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.