Structural, fabrication and enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/zirconium substituted cobalt ferrite (Co0·5Zr0·5Fe2O4) nanocomposites

In this work, zirconium (Zr) substituted cobalt ferrite, Co0·5Zr0·5Fe2O4 (CoZrFe) and its composite with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were synthesized by a two-step process. The structural and surface analysis of the composites were investigated by powder XRD, Raman analysis, TEM, and XPS. The magnetic properties of rGO/Co0·5Zr0·5Fe2O4 (rGO-CoZrFe) nanocomposites (NCs) were also studied by using VSM analysis. The rGO-CoZrFe NCs results showed that the Zr doped CoFe2O4 NPs were formed and uniformly wrapped on the surfaces of rGO. Microwave adsorption studies of rGO-CoZrFe NCs were performed using a vector network analyzer in 2–18 GHz frequency range. Minimum Reflection Loss (RL) of the prepared rGO-CoZrFe NCs were reached −31.89 dB at 4.2 GHz frequency range for the thickness of 5 mm pellet, the effective absorption bandwidth (RL less than −10 dB) is up to 4.0 GHz with very small thickness of 1 mm. This result indicates that these novel rGO-CoZrFe NCs will be potential candidates for efficient material in the electromagnetic wave adsorption filed.