Nickel nanoparticle–decorated reduced graphene oxide via one-step microwave-assisted synthesis and its lightweight and flexible composite with Polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-block-polystyrene polymer for electromagnetic wave shielding application
David Škoda, Jarmila Vilčáková, Raghvendra Singh Yadav, Barbora Hanulíková, Tereza Čapková, Marek Jurča, Michal Urbánek, Petr Macháč, Lucie Šimoníková, Jan Antoš, Ivo Kuřitka
Abstract
Abstract Nickel nanoparticle–decorated reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites (NiG) were prepared by a one-step microwave-assisted solvothermal method. The as-prepared NiG nanocomposite systems were further heated up to 800 °C under an inert atmosphere (named NiG-800) to modify their structural and electromagnetic properties. Thereafter, these developed NiG-800 nanocomposite systems of rGO and nickel nanoparticles (25 wt.%) were applied as nanofillers (50 wt.% and 70 wt.%) in a SEBS (Polystyrene- block -poly(ethylene- ran -butylene)- block -polystyrene) polymer matrix to create NiG-800(50)-SEBS and NiG-800(70)-SEBS nanocomposites. The addition of NiG-800 to SEBS led to an increase of Young’s modulus from 16 (SEBS) to 35 MPa (NiG-800(70)-SEBS) while the maximum elongation is still around 300%. The developed NiG-800(70)-SEBS nanocomposite exhibited high-performance electromagnetic wave absorption (minimum reflection loss RL min ≈ –48.2 dB at 9.29 GHz) at a low thickness of 2.3 mm in the frequency range of 8.2−12.4 GHz. The prepared NiG-800(70)-SEBS nanocomposite has the potential of an electromagnetic wave absorber. The NiG-800(70)-SEBS nanocomposite reported here has total shielding efficiency > 10 dB at a thickness of 1 mm in the whole frequency range (X-band) with reflection ≈ 50% and absorption ≈ 40% which has the potential for electromagnetic wave absorber applications.