Reduced graphene oxides: the thinnest and most lightweight materials with highly efficient microwave attenuation performances of the carbon world

In this work, reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) and graphite nanosheet (GN) were obtained via the chemical approach. Furthermore, r-GO composites and GN composites were prepared with a paraffin wax host. r-GO composites show high dielectric properties and electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency (EMI SE). Compared with the GN composites, the loss tangent and EMI SE of the r-GO composites with the same mass ratio are enhanced ∼5 to 10 times and ∼3 to 10 times, respectively. The enhanced attenuation capacity arises from higher specific surface area, clustered defects and residual bonds of the r-GOs, which increase the polarization loss, scattering and conductivity of the composite. Moreover, the higher conductivity of r-GO composites leads to higher EMI SE compared with that of GN composites. These results suggest that r-GOs are highly promising fillers for microwave attenuation in the carbon family and that r-GO composites are high-performance EMI shielding materials with application anticipated to many fields.