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Ultra-lightweight and multifunctional ionic liquid-modified graphene/polyimide aerogels for efficient electromagnetic wave absorption

  • Composites & nanocomposites
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Abstract

In this work, 1-aminoethyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ionic liquid was used to modify the surface of graphene nanosheets (GNs) through “π–π” interaction to achieve good dispersion and conductivity. By introducing ionic liquid-modified graphene nanosheets (IGNs) into the PI matrix, the ultra-lightweight and multifunctional IGNs/PI aerogels were prepared via freeze-drying and thermal imidization. Benefiting from the porous structure and the introduction of conductive IGNs, the IGNs/PI aerogels exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption properties, compression properties, thermal insulation properties and thermal stability. Notably, when the volume content of IGNs is 10%, the IGNs/PI-10 aerogels show the best EMW absorption performance with a minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −24.8 dB at 2.44 mm and an effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 3.6 GHz at 3.00 mm. These promising characteristics including excellent EMW absorption, compression properties and thermal insulation endow IGNs/PI aerogels great application prospects as multifunctional EMW absorbers.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (No. 2022GXNSFAA035536), the Project of Department of Science and Technology of Guilin (No. 20210217-5) and Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2022JJ50086).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metals and Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Material Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, China

    Jiaqi Yu, Yuqi Li, Shaorong Lu & Chao Yang

  2. Hunan Key Laboratory of Applied Environmental Photocatalysis, Changsha University, Changsha, 410022, China

    Jiaqi Yu & Wei Zhou

  3. State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Yang Li

  4. Guangxi Vocational and Technical College, Nanning, 530023, China

    Feng Qin

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  1. Jiaqi Yu
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  2. Yuqi Li
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  3. Feng Qin
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  4. Shaorong Lu
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  5. Chao Yang
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  6. Yang Li
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  7. Wei Zhou
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Contributions

JY helped in investigation and writing–original draft. YL helped in funding acquisition, conceptualization, supervision, investigation, writing–original draft and writing–review & editing. FQ helped in writing–review & editing. SL contributed to supervision and writing–review & editing. CY done validation and writing–review & editing. WZ contributed to supervision and writing–review & editing.

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Correspondence to Yuqi Li or Wei Zhou.

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Yu, J., Li, Y., Qin, F. et al. Ultra-lightweight and multifunctional ionic liquid-modified graphene/polyimide aerogels for efficient electromagnetic wave absorption. J Mater Sci 58, 9181–9195 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08607-z

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