Modified electrical and microwave absorption properties of silver nanowires grown on graphene nanoplatelets

Abstract

Crystalline silver nanowires (AgNWs), with lengths up to few micrometres and diameters of nearly 100 nm have been effectively synthesized on graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) by a modified polyol method. The possible mechanism for the development of silver nanowires is investigated. The GNPs/AgNWs nano-hybrid nano-materials were characterized and explored by x-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The GNPs/AgNWs nanohybrid materials were then added in E-glass/epoxy matrix in different weight percentage to create composites. These composites were characterized and investigated for electrical characteristics and microwave absorption measurements. The GNPs/AgNWs nano-hybrid epoxy composite has shown a prominent increase in conductivity compared to that of the composites prepared with GNPs alone in the epoxy matrix. The GNPs/AgNWs nanohybrid composite with a thickness of 1.2 mm exhibited a minimum Return Loss (RL) of -6.2 dB at 17 GHz whereas GNPs reinforced composite showed minimum RL of -5.7 dB even at 2.0 mm composite thickness. The enhancement of properties in composites is explained based on the structures of the GNPs/AgNWs nano-hybrid in the epoxy matrix.