Poly(phenylene-carborane) grafted graphene oxide for lightweight and thin–thickness microwave absorption composites

The poly(phenylene-carborane) (PPB) is covalently attached to the surface of graphene oxide (GO) for the first time via Ni(0)-catalyzed polymerization, and the functionalization of the GO has been confirmed by XPS, XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM and Raman. After grafting of PPB onto GO, the GO-PPB composites exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties, which are mainly originated from suitable impedance characteristics, the efficient complementarities of polarization and conductivity between PPB polymers and GO sheets, and the dipole polarization in the defects, functional groups and carborane structures. The effective absorption bandwidth (reflection loss below −10 dB) of GO-PPB composites with a low filler loading (20 wt%) can reach up to 3.6 GHz with a thickness of only 1.1 mm, and the minimum reflection loss of - − 28.3 dB is obtained in 4.2 GHz at the thickness of 3.7 mm. The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.