Elsevier

Ceramics International

Volume 45, Issue 17, Part B, 1 December 2019, Pages 22880-22888
Ceramics International

Novel two-dimensional Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids with enhanced microwave absorption properties

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.07.331Get rights and content

Abstract

Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids were successfully prepared through in situ hydrothermal assembly of Ni spheres on Ti3C2Tx layer, and then the electromagnetic wave absorbing materials were investigated in the range of 2–18 GHz. The as-synthesized Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids contain uniformly distributed Ni spheres on the edge of Ti3C2Tx layer and some of them enter the interspace between individual lamella. The Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids show an optimal reflection loss of −47.06 dB with the thickness of 1.5 mm at 12.4 GHz. The effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) reaches 3.6 GHz. The excellent electromagnetic wave absorbing properties can be explained in two ways. First is the conduction loss and dielectric loss of Ti3C2Tx and the second is the magnetic loss of Ni, in addition, the laminated structure could also enhance the microwave absorbing properties by the strong multi-reflections and scattering between MXene layers. The work of this article not only provides a new method for preparing novel electromagnetic wave absorbers, but also fine balance among small thickness, broad range band, and lightweight of the Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids, which makes Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids a promising materials for electromagnetic wave absorption application.

Introduction

Recently, electromagnetic pollution and interference have been one of the most urgent challenges for human society. Researches have shown that electromagnetic interference not only affects the utilization and service life of electronic appliances, but also poses a serious threat to human health [[1], [2], [3]]. Therefore, in order to effectively eliminate harmful microwaves, the development and research of high-performance microwave absorption (MA) materials have great significance in medical, information security, national defense and safety fields [4,5]. Traditional absorption materials such as ferrite [6,7], and silicon carbide [8], have some disadvantages of narrow absorption band and high density.

As a new type of two-dimensional (2D) materials, Ti3C2Tx is usually etched by an etchant to remove the Al atomic layer in the ternary ceramic phase precursor Ti3AlC2 [2,9,10]. It has incomparable electrical conductivity [11], many functional surface groups and localized defects [12,13], and unique 2D laminated structure [2,9,10], which is beneficial for the loss of the electro-magnetic wave.

Qing et al. found that the minimum reflection loss (RL) of Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets is −11  dB at 16.7 GHz with a thickness of 1.4 mm in 2016 [14]. While the excellent microwave absorption properties of MXenes had also been confirmed by Feng [15] and Yin's [16] group. Tong et al. demonstrated that Ti3C2Tx etching for 24 h shows outstanding microwave absorbing properties [17]. However, the Ti3C2Tx MXenes exhibit a narrow bandwidth; in order to improve this disadvantage, Zhao et al. successfully fabricated Ti3C2Tx/nano-carbon-sphere hybrids, at 3.97 GHz with a thickness of 4.8 mm, the minimum reflection loss being −54.67 dB via adjusting the etching time [18]. Tong et al. synthesized the Ti3C2Tx/PPy composites, in which EAB could be reached 4.9 GHz [19]. Recently, Li et al. reported the optimal RLmin of Ti3C2Tx/Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 composites is −42.5 dB (at 13.5 GHz) with a thickness of 6.5 mm due to the magnetic loss of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 [20]. While Liu et al. found the TiO2/Ti3C2Tx/Fe3O4 hybrids possess minimum reflection loss of −57.3 dB, and at a thickness of 1.9 mm, the effective absorption bandwidth is 2.0 GHz [21]. These results showed that magnetic materials can greatly increase magnetic loss to broaden the bandwidth, which can be ascribed to the improved impedance match, the reduced electrical conductivity, and the synergistic effect of magnetic and dielectric effects.

Ni, as a magnetic material, has many excellent properties: high compatible dielectric loss capability, saturated magnetization, and distinguishable permeability in the range of GHz [22,23]. In this work, laminated structure nanocomposites of Ti3C2Tx/Ni-spheres hybrids are prepared during hydrothermal process to improve the electromagnetic wave absorption performance. These hybrids could have excellent microwave absorbing properties by combining dielectric loss and conduction loss of Ti3C2Tx with magnetic loss of Ni, and the laminated structure could also enhance the microwave absorbing properties by internal scattering and reflecting.

Section snippets

Materials

All chemical reagents were analysis and directly used without any other treatment of purification. Raw material of Ti3AlC2 was synthesized at the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences(≧99% purity, 200 mesh). Hydrofluoric acid (HF, ≧40% wt%, analysis) was purchased from Luoyang Chemical Reagent Factory. Nickel chloride hexahydrate (NiCl2·6H2O, ≧98%, analysis) was obtained from Guangdong Xilong Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. Trisodium citrate dehydrate (C6H5Na3O7⋅2H2O, ≧99%,

Results and discussion

The XRD patterns of Ti3AlC2, Ti3C2Tx and Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids were presented in Fig. 2(a). Typically, the peak at 2θ ≈ 39° corresponding to the (104) plane of Ti3AlC2 disappears after Ti3AlC2 was treated in HF solution, which is replaced by a low intensity and broadened peak [10], indicating that Al is completely removed from Ti3AlC2 and the corresponding two-dimensional (2D) Ti3C2Tx MXenes were formed after HF etching. Furthermore, two new broadened, low intensity peaks at 17.8° and 27°

Conclusions

In summary, a novel two-dimensional of Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids was successfully prepared by a hydrothermal process and the as-obtained composites have excellent EM absorption properties. The as-prepared Ti3C2TX/Ni-spheres hybrids contain uniformly distributed Ni nanoparticles on the edge of each Ti3C2Tx MXene layer and some of them enter the interspace between individual lamella. The minimum RL value of sample S2 is −47.06 dB (with a thickness of 1.5 mm) at 12.4 GHz, and the effective

Declarations of interest

None.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (51602287, 51802289and 51672254) and the Natural Science Research Project of Henan Educational Committee (17A430006).

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