Attapulgite modulated thorny nickel nanowires/graphene aerogel with excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performance

Abstract While bringing convenience to our life, the extensive use of electromagnetic waves also does harm to the environment and human health. It is crucial to develop electromagnetic wave absorption materials (EAMs) which can solve these problems. However, the developed EAMs cannot meet the increasing requirement well. Here, a novel attapulgite modulated thorny nickel nanowires/graphene aerogel was fabricated by a simple one-pot solvothermal method and freeze drying process. Among all synthesized samples, the minimum reflection loss is −47 dB and the widest effective absorption bandwidth is 6.80 GHz, which is the result of great impedance matching and strong attenuation capability. Attapulgite effectively regulates the electromagnetic parameters, and multiple components provide multiple ways to absorb electromagnetic waves. Our results may help to further design cost-effective EAMs which exhibit excellent absorption performance and broaden the application fields of attapulgite clay minerals.