Iodine cation bridged graphene sheets with strengthened interface combination for electromagnetic wave absorption

Graphene-based metal-free aerogel is desirable for lightweight electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing materials. However, the weak van-der-Waals combination between graphene sheets, accompanied by the repulsion from surface oxygen-related polar groups, significantly hinder the transfer of electrons between the sheets, and lead to poor mechanical strength. These become bottlenecks for the further improvement of EMW absorption and have a huge impact on achieving multi-functions. Here, we used an iodine modification strategy to fabricate reduced graphene oxide (RGO) aerogel, in which graphene sheets are bridged by iodine cations (I + ). Meanwhile, iodine promotes the conversion of epoxy groups to hydroxyl groups on graphene, thereby facilitating the adhension of I + on the surface. These iodine cations rather than iodine anions are essential to strengthen the interconnection between graphene sheets, which enables the RGO aerogel to exhibit higher electrical conductivity, larger mechanical strength, higher thermal stability, and significantly improved EMW absorbing capability. With the improvement in conduction loss and impedance matching, the iodine-bridged RGO aerogel exhibits a maximium reflection loss of −52.8 dB and an effective absorption bandwidth of 7.2 GHz at 2 wt% filler loading, which are 3.8 and 1.5 times of pure RGO, respectively. Besides, the improved mechanical strength and resistance to temperature change benefit expanding the application fields of this aerogel.