Microwave absorption response of nickel/graphene nanocomposites prepared by electrodeposition

In this study, nanostructures of nickel have been successfully deposited on graphene nanosheet by direct electrochemical deposition. The morphology, nickel content, and magnetic properties of the graphene as well as composites were examined by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopic, elemental analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometer, respectively. Their relative complex permeability and permittivity were also measured, and reflection loss values were calculated at given thickness layer according to transmit line theory in the range 2–18 GHz. The results reveal that with the increasing of the thickness of the samples, the matching frequency tends to shift to the lower frequency region, and theoretical reflection loss becomes less at the matching frequency. When the absorbing thickness is 1 mm, the maximum absorption value of graphene is −6.5 dB at about 7 GHz. After decorating graphene sheet with magnetic nickel nanoparticles, the composites were shown to efficiently promote microwave absorbability. When the thickness is 1.5 mm, the absorption value of the composites exceeds −10 dB in the 5 GHz absorbing bandwidth and the maximum absorption value is −16.0 dB at 9.15 GHz.