Surface defect engineered CeO2-x by ultrasound treatment for superior photocatalytic H2 production and water treatment

Surface defects on semiconductor photocatalyst display incredible light absorption bandwidth and function as highly active sites for oxidation processes by interacting with surface band structure. Accordingly, engineering the photocatalyst with...

Enhanced Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Properties of Ultrathin MnO2 Nanosheet-Decorated Spherical Flower-Shaped Carbonyl Iron Powder

In this work, spherical flower-shaped composite carbonyl iron powder@MnO2 (CIP@MnO2) with CIP as the core and ultrathin MnO2 nanosheets as the shell was successfully prepared by a simple redox reaction to improve oxidation resistance and electromagnetic wave absorption properties. The microwave-absorbing properties of CIP@MnO2 composites with different filling ratios (mass fractions of 20%, 40%, and 60% after mixing with paraffin) were tested and analyzed. The experimental results show that compared with pure CIP, the CIP@MnO2 composites have smaller minimum reflection loss and a wider effective absorption bandwidth than CIP (RL < −20 dB). The sample filled with 40 wt% has the best comprehensive performance, the minimum reflection loss is −63.87 dB at 6.32 GHz, and the effective absorption bandwidth (RL < −20 dB) reaches 7.28 GHz in the range of 5.92 GHz–9.28 GHz and 11.2 GHz–15.12 GHz, which covers most C and X bands. Such excellent microwave absorption performance of the spherical flower-like CIP@MnO2 composites is attributed to the combined effect of multiple beneficial components and the electromagnetic attenuation ability generated by the special spherical flower-like structure. Furthermore, this spherical flower-like core–shell shape aids in the creation of discontinuous networks, which improve microwave incidence dispersion, polarize more interfacial charges, and allow electromagnetic wave absorption. In theory, this research could lead to a simple and efficient process for producing spherical flower-shaped CIP@MnO2 composites with high absorption, a wide band, and oxidation resistance for a wide range of applications.

Metal Oxide/Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanosheet Heteronanostructures as Highly Efficient Electromagnetic Wave Absorbing Materials

In this paper, we will discuss the excellent broadband microwave absorption behaviors of Cu/CuO/carbon nanosheet composites: traces of copper and oxide embedded in a carbon nano-sheet not only cut down the high permittivity of adsorbs but also induce more interfacial polarization centers. The results showed that at a cracking temperature of 900 °C, the fabricated material has a unique ripple-like structure, which promotes the hierarchical interfacial polarization. The prepared material has a maximum absorption bandwidth of 4.48 GHz at an exceedingly thin thickness of 1.7 mm and a maximum reflection loss of −25.3 dB at a thickness of 2 mm. It is a relatively ideal material for electromagnetic wave absorption.

Design of Thin and Wideband Microwave Absorbers Using General Closed-Form Solutions

A new design method for RLC reactive absorbers is presented. This method is based on closed-form solutions to help realize the widest absorption bandwidth for an arbitrarily specified thickness. The solutions for the RLC values of the reactive screen are derived using an equivalent circuit in which the thickness of the substrate used, the permittivity and tangential loss of the substrate, and the frequency are all considered. A perfect match and maximum bandwidth at a design frequency can be achieved with the proposed method. Various aspects of the absorber characteristics, depending on the thickness and loss of the substrate, are analyzed using the presented solutions and electromagnetic (EM) simulations. To validate the proposed design method, an X-band microwave absorber with a crossed-dipole structure patterned on a silver nanowire resistive film is designed, fabricated, and measured. The substrate electrical thickness of the absorber is 70° at 10 GHz, with a permittivity of 2.2. The 90% absorption bandwidth is 8 GHz in the frequency range of 8.2–16.2 GHz. The measured absorption agrees well with the results obtained using circuit and EM simulations.

Electrically Tunable Perfect Terahertz Absorber Using Embedded Combline Graphene Layer

Graphene is a powerful 2-D matter with the capability of extraordinary transparency, and tunable conductivity is employed in emerging optoelectronics devices. In this article, the design of an electrically tunable graphene-based perfect terahertz absorber is proposed and evaluated numerically. The introduced structure is composed of two graphene layers with a sharp absorption peak in the terahertz band. These graphene layers are combline and stripline separated by the insulator substrate. The position of the absorption peak is tunable on the absorption band by means of manipulation in geometric parameters of the combline graphene layer. Furthermore, the intensity and frequency of the absorption peak can be flexibly modulated by varying Fermi potential of the combline graphene layer, which can be controlled through external DC voltages without the need of changing the geometry of the structure. It is shown that the absorption band can be tuned in the bandwidth from 5 to 15 in terahertz. The findings of this paper can promote a new perspective in designing perfect ribbon absorbers based on graphene properties that can be utilized for future photodetectors, solar cells, and thermal sensors with an absorption intensity above 2 × 105(nm2) with narrow absorption bandwidth of 0.112 THz.

Polarization-Insensitive Broadband THz Absorber Based on Circular Graphene Patches

A polarization-insensitive broadband terahertz absorber based on single-layer graphene metasurface has been designed and simulated, in which the graphene metasurface is composed of isolated circular patches. After simulation and optimization, the absorption bandwidth of this absorber with more than 90% absorptance is up to 2 THz. The simulation results demonstrate that the broadband absorption can be achieved by combining the localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances on the graphene patches and the resonances caused by the coupling between them. The absorption bandwidth can be changed by changing the chemical potential of graphene and the structural parameters. Due to the symmetrical configuration, the proposed absorber is completely insensitive to polarization and have the characteristics of wide angle oblique incidence that they can achieve broadband absorption with 70% absorptance in the range of incident angle from 0° to 50° for both TE and TM polarized waves. The flexible and simple design, polarization insensitive, wide-angle incident, broadband and high absorption properties make it possible for our proposed absorber to have promising applications in terahertz detection, imaging and cloaking objects.