Nickel-assisted synthesis of magnetic bamboo-shaped N-doped carbon nanostructure for excellent microwaves absorption

doi:10.1016/j.synthmet.2020.116644

Synthetic Metals

Volume 272, February 2021, 116644

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2020.116644 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Bamboo-shaped magnetic N-doped carbon nanotube (BMN-CNT) was prepared via Ni-assisted pyrolysis.
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The microwaves absorption properties of BMN-CNT were investigated.
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BMN-CNT shows obviously dielectric and magnetic effect on microwaves.

Abstract

The development of carbon materials with unique nanostructure and appropriate magnetism is of great importance in design of high-performance microwaves absorption materials. In this work, we provide a convenient strategy for one-step synthesis of a bamboo-shaped magnetic N-doped carbon nanotube (BMN-CNT) via a nickel (Ni)-assisted pyrolysis process. During synthetic process, Ni nanoparticles form and play as a catalyst for the catalytic calcination of melamine. The BMN-CNT exhibits excellent microwaves absorption performance, where the maximal reaches − 19 dB. A model referring to multi-polarization, internal reflection, and magnetic loss is used to explain the dissipation mechanism of BMN-CNT on microwaves. This research opens up the exploration of novel magnetic carbon nanostructures for MA applications.

Graphical Abstract

Introduction

The rapid development of modern electronics and information technology not only brings great convenience to people's daily life, but also causes serious electromagnetic interferences on sophisticated electronic equipment as well as human health [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. It is a common way to solve these problems by microwave absorption (MA) materials [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. To date, many kinds of materials with excellent MA performances have been developed, such as resistance-type (graphene, carbon black, and carbon nanotube) [11], dielectric-type (SiC, BaTiO₃, and ZnO) [12], and magnetic medium-type (ferrite et al.) [13]. Theoretically, the MA performance of a material is closely related to intrinsically electrical conductivity, dielectric constant, microstructure, and permeability [14], [15], [16]. Therefore, it is believed that appropriate electrical conductivity, permeability and unique microstructure are desirable for the design of high-performance MA materials.

Carbon nanotube (CNT) is widely known as a typical carbon nanomaterial and has attracted great attention in recent years, by virtue of their unique optical, electrical and physicochemical properties [17], [18]. For CNT, its electrons are restrained to tubular surface on account of its one-dimensional hollow microstructure, and thus provides apparent surficial confinement effect on electron transport [19]. Besides, graphited conjugate system endows CNT with excellent electrical conductivity [20]. These enable CNT be a potential candidate for the application in MA area. However, CNT cannot be directly used as a good MA material, because its high electrical conductivity generally leads to high refection toward microwaves [21]. Recently, to pursue high-performance MA materials, many routes have been developed to tune electrical and magnetic properties of CNT. For instance, insertion of nitrogen atom into CNT obviously improves its electronic structure and surficial wettability, revealing their great potential for energy storage application, but its MA performance is not reported [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27]. The hybridization of CNT with magnetic metal/oxides can give consideration to dielectric loss and magnetic loss, thus provides a possibility for the design of high-performance microwaves absorbents [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35].

In this work, we provide the synthesis of bamboo-shaped magnetic N-doped CNT (BMN-CNT) via a nickel (Ni)-assisted pyrolysis of melamine and use this novel carbon nanostructure for MA application. During the pyrolysis process, molecular melamine can be transformed into carbon materials with different structures, depending on the setting temperature. The magnetic N-doped CNT shows good absorption performance toward microwaves, where the maximal absorption reaches − 19 dB. N-doped Bamboo-like microstructure accompanying with magnetic Ni sites is thought to be the main reason for good MA performance of this CNT. This research opens up the exploration of novel magnetic carbon nanostructures for MA applications.

Section snippets

Materials

The ethanol (95%), Melamine (99%) and nickel chloride hexahydrate (NiCl₂∙6H₂O, 99%) were purchased from Titan Scientific Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) and used without further purification.

Synthesis of BMN-CNT

1 g of melamine and 0.7 g of NiCl₂∙6H₂O was dispersed in ethanol (50 mL) with magnetic stirring. Then, the mixed solution was prepared to melamine/NiCl₂∙6H₂O mixture using a rotary evaporator at 40 °C in flask, the condensation temperature was set to − 10 °C and the rotation speed was 80 r/min. After that, the

Results and discussion

Scheme 1 shows the synthetic process of BMN-CNT. The precursors were prepared by mixing melamine and NiCl₂∙6H₂O, and then pyrolyzed to furnish BMN-CNT. Thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) was adopted to investigate the structural variation under pyrolysis process. As shown in Fig. 1a, the curve of melamine shows one significant weight loss step, where starts to descend at 251.4 °C and then decreases to the weight percentage of 0% at 350.2 °C. It indicates that

Conclusions

In summary, we provide an efficient strategy for the synthesis of a bamboo-shaped magnetic N-doped CNT and investigate its MA property. During the synthetic process, the melamine precursor was transformed into hollow-bamboo shape at 700 °C with the assistance of Ni catalytic sites. The electrical conductivity of calcined product increases with the increasing of heating temperature. When the treatment temperature was 800 °C, the impedance matching decreased remarkably, thus leading to reduced MA

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Qingya Sun: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft. Xinfang Zhang: Data curation, Formal analysis. Ruonan Liu: Investigation. Shaofeng Shen: Writing - original draft. Fan Wu: Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Aming Xie: Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (2020M671501) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51702161).

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Citation Excerpt :
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Nickel-assisted synthesis of magnetic bamboo-shaped N-doped carbon nanostructure for excellent microwaves absorption

Highlights

Abstract

Graphical Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials

Synthesis of BMN-CNT

Results and discussion

Conclusions

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgements

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Lightweight and easily foldable MCMB-MWCNTs composite paper with exceptional electromagnetic interference shielding

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