Reduced Graphene Oxide-Cu0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4-Polyaniline Nanocomposite: Preparation, Characterization and Microwave Absorption Properties

Reduced graphene oxide-Cu0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4-polyaniline nanocomposite (RGO-CNF-PANI) was synthesized by a three-step method. The morphology, structure and magnetic properties of composite samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy (RAMAN) and vibrating sample magnetometer. It was found that reduced graphene oxide was exfoliated and decorated homogeneously with ferrite nanoparticles having diameters between 11 nm and 21 nm. The polyaniline was coated by an in situ chemical oxidation polymerization. The measurement of magnetic properties found the remanence (Mr) and coercive field (Hc) were near zero, indicating that the obtained material was superparamagnetic. The microwave measurements found that the nanocomposite exhibited a good absorption property with the optimum matching thickness of 3 mm in the frequency of 8–12 GHz. The value of the maximum RL was −40.7 dB at 9.8 GHz. © 2017, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.