Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58

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Synthetic Metals
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/synmet

Enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption performances of Co3 O4

nanocube/reduced graphene oxide composite
Xiubing Li a , Siwei Yang a , Jing Sun a , Peng He a , Xipeng Pu b , Guqiao Ding a,∗
a
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shanghai 200050, People’s Republic of China
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, People’s Republic of China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Co3 O4 nanocube/reduced graphene oxide (Co3 O4 /RGO) composite paper has been firstly fabricated
Received 24 December 2013 via a simple process. Several analytical techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spec-
Received in revised form 8 April 2014 troscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron
Accepted 13 April 2014
microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been employed to characterize the
Co3 O4 /RGO composite. The results indicated that the Co3 O4 nanocubes attached to the RGO sheets, and
Keywords:
that the average edge length of Co3 O4 nanocubes is about 200 nm. The obtained composite exhibited a
Co3 O4
maximum reflection loss of −32.3 dB at 12.4 GHz with a coating layer thickness of 2.5 mm, and the effec-
Reduced graphene oxide
Nanocubes
tive absorption bandwidth with reflection loss less than −10 dB is up to 10.5 GHz (from 5.5 to 16.0 GHz)
Electromagnetic absorption when an appropriate absorber thickness between 2 and 5 mm is chosen. Such high microwave absorp-
tion composite can be used as promising candidate for the new type of electromagnetic wave absorptive
material.
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction exceptional properties, including high thermal stability and light

Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption materials in the giga-
hertz (GHz) range have attracted much attention because of their
potential applications in electronic devices and telecommunica-
tions [1,2]. Recently, extensive efforts have been done to develop
high performance EM wave absorption materials with wide absorp-
tion frequency range, small thickness, light weight and strong
absorption characteristics [3–5]. According to the EM energy con-
version principle, the reflection and attenuation characteristics of
EM absorption materials mainly depend on dielectric loss and mag-
netic loss [6,7]. Traditional EM wave absorption materials such as
magnetic metal oxides [8,9] and magnetic metal powders [10,11]
produced large magnetic loss due to their high complex perme-
ability. However, the magnetic absorbers have relatively larger
densities and can only be produced with large thickness, which
restrains their practical application [12]. Therefore, it is urgent to
synthesize lightweight and stable EM wave absorption materials
for meeting the actual application. Carbon itself is very light, and
carbon based EM wave absorption materials have high complex
permittivity values. In addition, carbon materials exhibit several
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 62511070.
E-mail addresses: gqding@mail.sim.ac.cn, simitDING@163.com (G. Ding).
weight [13–16].
As a rising carbon material, graphene is attractive of its extraor-
dinary thermal, electrical and mechanical properties, coming from
its unique two-dimensional one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2 -
hybridized carbon atoms [17]. Due to their unique structures and
superior properties, graphene-based composite materials are uti-
lized for supercapacitors [18,19], lithium ion batteries [20,21], field
effect transistors [22] and sensors [23,24]. Recently, chemically
reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and their composites are expected
to be promising EM wave absorption materials because of their high
surface area, good electric conductivity, and excellent mechanical
stability [25,26]. Some reports demonstrated that the combina-
tion of RGO with magnetic particles would enhance its EM wave
absorption property [27–30]. Co3 O4 is one of the most intriguing
magnetic p-type semiconductors, and has found use in applications
in many fields, such as heterogeneous catalysts, electrochromic
devices, and solid-state sensors [31–33]. Recently, composites of
Co3 O4 with graphene were successfully prepared by liquid phase
and microwave-assisted methods and greatly improved electro-
chemical performance and gas sensing properties [34–38]. For
example, Lian et al. reported an electro-static spray deposition
method to synthesize a Co3 O4 -graphene composite coating was
uniformly deposited on current collectors, which enables fast
ion transport during the charge and discharge processes and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2014.04.012
0379-6779/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 X. Li et al. / Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58
accommodates the large volume expansion of Co3 O4 when Li+
inserts or extracts into its lattice [34]. Li et al. adopted a hydro-
thermal method to prepare Co3 O4 intercalated RGO based thick film
semiconductor sensors. The sensor showed an enhanced response
to NO2 and excellent response and recovery to methanol [35].
Qiu and coworkers reported a hydrothermal method to synthesize
the composite of Co3 O4 /RGO, and the composite exhibit excel-
lent electrochemical performance for supercapacitors [36]. More
recently, Huang et al. fabricated polyaniline/RGO/Co3 O4 nanocom-
posite by a three-step method and RGO/Co3 O4 nanocomposite by
hydrothermal method [39,40]. The results show that small Co3 O4
nanoparticles with the sizes in the range of 5–20 nm are anchored
on the surface of polyaniline/RGO. The simulation results show
that the polyaniline/RGO/Co3 O4 nanocomposite exhibits high val-
ues of reflection loss (<−10 dB) over a wide frequency range of
3.4–11.8 and 12.9–18 GHz and the maximum loss is −32.6 dB at
6.3 GHz with a thickness of 3 mm. For the RGO/Co3 O4 compos-
ite, the microwave adsorption properties show that the maximum
reflection loss of RGO/Co3 O4 is up to −42.7 dB at 13.8 GHz and
the absorption bandwidth with the reflection loss below −10 dB
is 4.6 GHz with a thickness of 3.3 mm. Shi et al. [28] synthesized
Fe3 O4 /RGO composite through a facile method, exhibiting a vari-
ety of good electrochemical characteristics. However, the EM wave
absorption properties of Co3 O4 /RGO composite have not been ade-
quately studied [39–41]. Herein, we tried to supported Co3 O4
nanocubes on the RGO sheet surface, which were expected to
exhibit lightweight, wide-frequency and strong microwave absorp-
tion performance.
In this work, we fabricated a free-standing Co3 O4 /RGO com-
posite paper by simple filtration combined with a hydrothermal
reduction process. Several analytical techniques, including XRD,
XPS, TGA, SEM and TEM, have been employed to characterize
the resulting composite. Moreover, the Co3 O4 /RGO composite
exhibits excellent EM absorption properties. The maximum reflec-
tion loss (RL) of the as-prepared composite is −32.3 dB at 12.4 GHz
with a thickness of 2.5 mm, and the absorption bandwidth with
the reflection loss below −10 dB is up to 10.5 GHz (from 5.5 to
16.0 GHz) with a thickness in the range of 2–5 mm, which demon-
strate an enhanced EM absorption property and wide absorption
bandwidth.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Co(CH3 COO)2 ·4H2 O was purchased from Sinopharm Chemical
Reagent Co. Ltd. (Shanghai, China). All chemicals were of analytical
grade and used as received without further purification. Ultrapure
water (18 M cm) was used for all experiments.
2.2. Preparation of Co3 O4 /RGO composite paper
Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized by acid oxidation of nat-
ural graphite flakes according to a modified Hummers’s method
[42]. GO solution was achieved by ultrasonication in anhydrous
ethanol for 2 h and the concentration of the final GO ethanol
suspension was about 0.3 mg/ml. The Co3 O4 /RGO composite was
synthesized via a simple process. In a typical synthesis, firstly,
0.5 ml of 0.2 mol/L Co(CH3 COO)2 aqueous solution was added to
20 ml of GO ethanol suspension. The reaction was stirred for 15 h
at 80 ◦ C. Secondly, the reaction mixture was transferred to a 50 ml
autoclave for hydrothermal reaction at 180 ◦ C for 3 h. Free-standing
Co3 O4 /RGO composite paper was prepared by filtrating the above
mixture through a 0.2 ␮m polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) mem-
brane filter, followed by washing, air drying, and peeling off from
53
the filter. RGO was obtained from GO via a similar process without
the presence of Co(CH3 COO)2 .
2.3. Characterizations
FT-IR spectra were recorded using FT-IR NICOLET-4700 in the
range 500–4000 cm−1 . X-ray diffraction (XRD) powder patterns
were taken on a Rigaku X-ray diffractometer with Cu-K␣ irradi-
ation. Raman spectra were recorded on a Thermo Fisher DXR using
an Ar+ laser (wavelength 532 nm, 2 mW) with 1 ␮m laser spot
equipped with an optical microscopy. Thermogravimetric analy-
sis (TGA) was conducted by a TA Q5000IR with a heating rate of
5 ◦ C min−1 from room temperature to 800 ◦ C under flowing air.
The X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) was conducted on an X-
ray photoelectron spectrometer using an Mg-K␣ radiation exciting
source (AXIS ULTRA DLD, Kratos). The atomic force microscope
(AFM, SPM-9600) was employed to evaluate the morphology of
GO sheet, with a special emphasis on estimating its thickness.
The structure and morphology of the sample were investigated by
scanning electron microscope (SEM) (FEI Sirion-F250) and trans-
mission electron microscope (TEM) (FEI Tecnai G2 20 STWIN). The
composites used for EM absorption measurements were prepared
by mixing 10, 20 and 30 wt% of the Co3 O4 /RGO composite sam-
ple with a paraffin matrix. The mixtures were then pressed into
toroidal-shaped samples (˚out = 7.00 mm and ˚in = 3.04 mm). The
complex permittivity and permeability values were measured in
the 1–18 GHz range with an Agilent 8722ES vector network ana-
lyzer by using the transmission/reflection coaxial wire method.
3. Results and discussions
Fig. 1a shows the typical XRD patterns of pristine natural
graphite, GO, RGO and Co3 O4 /RGO sample. The natural graphite
displays a characteristic peak at 2 = 26.6◦ indicating an interlayer
spacing of 0.34 nm with an index of (0 0 2). After oxidation, the
characteristic graphite peak disappeared and was replaced by a
well-defined peak at 2 = 12.1◦ corresponds to the (0 0 1) reflection
of GO, and the interlayer spacing (0.73 nm) is much larger than that
of natural graphite. The increased d-spacing of GO is ascribed to
the presence of copious oxygen-containing functional groups. For
RGO, there is a characteristic broad peak of graphene at 23.9◦ , rep-
resenting an interplanar spacing of 0.37 nm with an index of (0 0 2),
which is slightly higher than that of natural graphite. Whereas,
for Co3 O4 /RGO composite, the diffraction peak for C (0 0 2) is rel-
atively low indicating that significant orderedly staked graphene
sheets are absent due to the introduction of Co3 O4 nanocubes on
both sides of graphene sheets and the presence of a small amount
of oxygen-containing functional groups. All the other characteris-
tic (1 1 1), (2 2 0), (3 1 1), (4 0 0), (5 1 1) and (4 4 0) peaks are well
observed, reflecting the presence of Co3 O4 phase (JCPDS card no.
43-1467) in the composite [43]. Fig. 1b shows the Raman spectrum
of GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite. In the Raman of GO, there are two
broad peaks centered at 1346 and 1598 cm−1 , assigning to sp3 (D
band) and sp2 (G band) hybridization carbon atoms, respectively.
The Raman spectrum of the composite also contains both peaks at
about 1350 and 1594 cm−1 , which are attributed the D and G bands
of RGO. The intensity ratio of the D band to the G band (ID /IG ) of RGO
(0.83) is low than that of GO (0.96), which confirms the reduction
of GO [44]. The signals located at approximately 189, 470, 516, and
676 cm−1 correspond to the Eg , F2g 1 , F2g 2 and A1g vibration modes of
the Co3 O4 , respectively [45]. These XRD and Raman results demon-
strate the existence of both RGO and well-crystallized Co3 O4 . TGA
was carried out in an air flow of 50 mL/min to quantify the amount
of graphene and Co3 O4 in the Co3 O4 /RGO composite. As shown in
Fig. 1c, TGA-DTA curves of Co3 O4 /RGO clarify the weight ratio of
54 X. Li et al. / Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of natural graphite, GO, RGO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite (a), Raman spectra of GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite (b), and (c) TGA-DTA curves of the Co3 O4 /RGO
composite.
Co3 O4 nanocubes in the composite. The mass loss between 15 and
100 ◦ C and 222–340 ◦ C can be attributed to the loss of adsorbed
water and the pyrolysis of graphene, respectively. According to the
changes in weight, the percentage of RGO in the composite was
found to be about 25%, and the residual weight corresponds to the
loading of Co3 O4 nanocubes depositing onto graphene sheets of the
Co3 O4 /RGO composite is estimated to be 68%.
Fig. 2 shows FT-IR spectra of GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite.
For GO, the broad peak at 3407 cm−1 can be ascribed to the defor-
mation vibration of hydroxyl groups and the stretching vibration
of adsorbed water molecules. The C O H deformation of car-
boxyl groups was observed at 1733 cm−1 . The skeletal vibrations
of C C bonds were observed around 1635 cm−1 [46]. The peaks
at 1406, 1223 and 1069 cm−1 correspond to C O H deformation,
Fig. 2. FT-IR spectra of GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite.
C OH stretching (epoxyl groups) and C O stretching vibrations
(alkoxy groups), respectively. In comparison with GO, the char-
acteristic bonds of oxygen-based functionalities on the spectra
of Co3 O4 /RGO composite have disappeared, and the intensities
of all peaks are weaker. This result proves that the GO has been
chemically reduced into RGO after the preparation of Co3 O4 /RGO
composite.
The chemical states of elements in GO and Co3 O4 /RGO compos-
ite were further provided by XPS measurements in the region of
0–1250 eV, are presented in Fig. 3. The survey spectra of GO and as-
prepared Co3 O4 /RGO composite are shown in Fig. 3a, and it is clear
that C, O, and Co elements coexist in the as-prepared composite.
The C 1s spectrum of GO can be deconvoluted into four com-
ponents that correspond to carbon atoms in different functional
groups: the aromatic carbon (284.6 eV), the carbon in C O bonds of
epoxy and alkoxy (285.3 eV), the carbonyl carbon (287.2 eV) and the
carboxylate carbon (288.7 eV). Although the C 1s spectrum of the
Co3 O4 /RGO composite exhibit the same oxygen-containing func-
tionalites, the peak intensities of all C 1s peaks of the carbon binding
to oxygen are much smaller than those in GO, confirming that most
of the oxygen-containing functional groups are removed (Fig. 3b.)
[47,48]. Compared to that of GO, the XPS spectrum of Co3 O4 /RGO
composite exhibits a low O 1s peak and an additional Co 2p peaks.
The Co 2p XPS spectrum of the composite exhibits two major peaks
with binding energies at 780.5 and 796.3 eV, corresponding to the
Co 2p3/2 and Co 2p1/2 spin-orbit peaks of Co3 O4 , respectively, and
two shake-up satellite peaks located at approximately 6 eV above
the main peaks, which is characteristic of a Co3 O4 phase and in good
agreement with the reported data (Fig. 3c.) [49,50]. The deconvo-
luted O 1s spectrum in Fig. 3d displays two peaks centered at 530.0
and 531.7 eV, respectively, which can be assigned to the lattice oxy-
gen in the Co O phase and the oxygen of the hydroxide ions [51].
 X. Li et al. / Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58
Fig. 3. XPS survey spectra of GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite (a), C 1s XPS spectra of GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite (b), Co 2p XPS spectrum of Co3 O4 /RGO composite (c), and
(d) O 1s XPS spectrum of Co3 O4 /RGO composite.
The binding energy component observed at 533.2 eV is attributed
to the residual oxygen-containing groups in RGO [52].
The morphologies of the GO and Co3 O4 /RGO composite were
examined by AFM, TEM and SEM. Fig. 4a and c present the AFM
and TEM images of GO. The height profile image clearly shows
0.83 nm thickness of pure GO sheet (Fig. 4b), suggesting that single-
layered GO is obtained [53]. Fig. 4d and e shows the top-view SEM
images of Co3 O4 /RGO composite paper. It is clearly observed that
a large number of Co3 O4 nanocubes covered on the surface of the
curved planar graphene sheets, forming Co3 O4 /RGO composite. The
inset in Fig. 4d shows Co3 O4 /RGO paper with diameter of approx-
imately 40 mm. As observed from a representative TEM image of
the Co3 O4 /RGO composite shown in Fig. 5a, the planar graphene
sheets are covered with Co3 O4 nanocubes. The average edge length
of Co3 O4 nanocubes is about 200 nm and randomly located on the
RGO sheet surface. A higher resolution TEM image of a single Co3 O4
nanocube is shown in Fig. 5b, revealing that the nanocube is not a
singe crystal, but consists of a cluster of tiny Co3 O4 particles with
a diameter about 10 nm. The SAED pattern from the area focus-
ing on the as-prepared Co3 O4 nanocubes is illutrated in the inset of
Fig. 5b, indicating the presence of bright diffraction spots along with
diffraction rings. The presence of such rings further confirms that
each Co3 O4 nanocube is a polycrystalline. Fig. 5c shows the atomic
resolution HR-TEM image of the Co3 O4 /RGO composite, focusing
on the Co3 O4 nanocubes. It is clearly shown that there is an obvi-
ous interlayer distance of 0.24 nm, confirming the presence of the
(1 1 1) plane of the Co3 O4 fcc crystals.
To understand the possible EM wave absorption mechanisms,
the real (ε ) and imaginary (ε ) parts of the complex permittiv-
ity, and the real ( ) and imaginary ( ) parts of the complex
55
permeability have been measured for three samples composed of
10, 20, and 30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO composite with wax in the fre-
quency range of 1–18 GHz. It can be found that the ε of 10, 20, and
30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO decreased gradually with increasing frequency
from 3.65 to 3.50, 6.81 to 5.10, and 12.87 to 7.29, respectively,
with several small fluctuations over 1–18 GHz, demonstrating a
frequency-dependent dielectric response (Fig. 6a). As shown in
Fig. 6b, for 10, 20, and 30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO, the values of ε are in the
range of 0.27–0.47, 1.15–1.41, and 3.06–2.32, respectively. Differ-
ent to the real part, for 10 and 20 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO, the ε value
negligibly increases with increasing frequency in the 1–18 GHz
range, and the ε value of the 30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO fluctuates between
2.5 and 4.4. The sample with higher Co3 O4 /RGO ratios shows higher
values of ε and ε over the frequency range 1–18 GHz. This can be
explained by the fact that the RGO sheets are a kind of conduc-
tor material, which may lead to the increasing conductivity of the
Co3 O4 /RGO composite. According to the free electron theory, high
conductivity would result in high permittivity [15,27]. In terms of
EM theory, Co3 O4 nanocubes with a large size may be helpful in
absorbing EM waves due to multidomain walls in the Co3 O4 bulk.
In addition, the anisotropic energy of Co3 O4 is largely related to its
morphology, and thereby, the large size Co3 O4 nanocubes are likely
to have an important effect on the magnetic loss for EM waves [54].
Such improved EM absorption characteristics of the Co3 O4 /RGO
composite are mainly attributed to the shape anisotropy of Co3 O4
nanocubes and the conductivity of RGO.
As presented in Fig. 6c and d, for 10, 20, and 30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO
composites, the values of  are in the range of 1.11–1.05,
1.10–1.06, and 1.07–1.11, respectively, in the frequency range of
1–18 GHz and the values of  for 10, 20, and 30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO
56 X. Li et al. / Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58

Fig. 4. Morphologies of GO nanosheets and Co3 O4 /RGO composite: AFM (a), the corresponding height profile of the GO used (b), TEM (c) image of GO, and (d and e) SEM
images of Co3 O4 /RGO composite, the inset in d is a digital photograph of Co3 O4 /RGO composite paper with diameter of approximately 40 mm.

Fig. 5. TEM images of Co3 O4 /RGO composite with low and high magnifications (a and b). HR-TEM image focusing on cobalt oxide nanocube in Co3 O4 /RGO composite, showing
the lattice fingers (c). The inset of (b) shows SAED pattern of Co3 O4 /RGO composite focusing on cobalt oxide nanocube.
 X. Li et al. / Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58 57

Fig. 6. Frequency of dependence of relative complex permittivity: real part (a) and imaginary part (b), and relative complex permeability: real part (c) and imaginary part (d),
of various amounts of Co3 O4 /RGO composites mixed with wax, the loss tangent (e–g) with different loadings and the reflection loss (h) of the Co3 O4 /RGO-wax composites
with a loading of 20 wt% at different thickness from 2 to 5 mm.

composites are in the range of 0.07–(−0.01), 0.09–(−0.01), and
0.04–0.08, respectively. In additional, it should be noted that the
value of  is negative in part of the frequency region, which is
similar to the result for pristine RGO [15]. This is suggested that
the EM wave absorption mechanism of the Co3 O4 /RGO composite
consists of both dielectric loss and magnetic loss [3]. From Fig. 6e, f
and g, for 10, 20, and 30 wt% Co3 O4 /RGO, we can see that the values
of the dielectric loss (tan ıE ) are higher than magnetic loss (tan ıM ),
suggesting that the reflection of the composite is mainly dependent
on the dielectric loss [40].
58 X. Li et al. / Synthetic Metals 194 (2014) 52–58
In order to study the EM wave absorption performance of
Co3 O4 /RGO composite, based on a generalized transmission line
theory, the RL values of Co3 O4 /RGO backed by a metal plate under
the normal incidence of an EM field were calculated using the
relative complex permeability and permittivity data for a given
frequency and absorber thickness using the following equations:
  √  [6] R.C. Che, L.M. Peng, X.F. Duan, Q. Chen, X.L. Liang, Adv. Mater. 16 (2004)
r fd
Zin = Z0 tanh j 2 εr r (1)
εr c
 
 Zin − Z0 
RL = 20 log   (2)
Z +Z
in 0 [10] X.G. Liu, D.Y. Geng, Z.D. Zhang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 92 (2008) 243110.
where Zin is the input impedance of the absorber, Z0 is the intrinsic
impedance of free space, f is the frequency, d is the layer thick-
ness, εr and r are the complex permittivity and permeability
of the composite absorber, respectively, and c is the velocity of
electromagnetic waves in free space. Fig. 6h shows the calculated
theoretical RL of the Co3 O4 /RGO composites with different thick-
ness (2–5 mm) in the range of 1–18 GHz with a loading 20 wt%. It
can be clearly seen that the thickness of the absorber has a great
influence on the microwave absorbing properties, and the max-
imum RL gradually appeared at different frequency and shifted
toward lower frequency with increasing thickness. At a thick-
ness of 2.5 mm, the minimum RL is −31.7 dB at 12.4 GHz, and
the bandwidth of RL values less than −10 dB can reach up to
10.5 GHz (from 5.5 to 16.0 GHz) when an appropriate absorber
thickness between 2 and 5 mm is chosen. It demonstrated that
the as-prepared Co3 O4 /RGO composite shows enhanced EM wave
absorption performances and wider absorption bandwidth, which
can be used as an effective candidate for the new EM wave absorp-
tion material.
4. Conclusions
In summary, Co3 O4 /RGO composite paper with obviously
enhanced microwave absorption properties has been firstly synthe-
sized via a simple process. The 200 nm nanocubes, consisting 10 nm
Co3 O4 nanoparticles, attached to RGO sheets to form Co3 O4 /RGO
composite. The composite exhibits remarkably improved electro-
magnetic performance, not only a larger reflection loss (−31.7 dB at
12.4 GHz), but also a wider absorption bandwidth (less than −10 dB
from 5.5 to 16.0 GHz) have been achieved in the frequency range of
1–18 GHz. Additionally, the microwave absorption properties can
be tuned easily by varying the loading mass percentage and the
layer thickness of the samples. It provides a facile method to fab-
ricate a potential kind of excellent microwave absorbing material
with light weight, strong absorption and wide absorption band-
width. Our results suggest that the composite with controllable
composition and structure can be effective for microwave absorp-
tion enhancement, and may be extended to other applications, such
as lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by projects from China Postdoc-
toral Science Foundation (2013M531233), the National Science and
Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2011ZX02707), the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11104303,
11274333, 11204339, 61136005 and 51002069), Chinese Academy
of Sciences (Grant Nos. KGZD-EW-303, XDA02040000 and
XDB04010500).
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