Hierarchically porous Co/C nanocomposites for ultralight high-performance microwave absorption

Carbon-based composites have gained extensive attention as microwave absorbing materials due to the lighter weight compared with other materials. In this work, Co/C nanocomposites with Co nanoparticles uniformly distributed in amorphous carbon sheets are prepared by a freezing dry and carbothermic reduction process. Hierarchical porous microstructures (micropores, mesopores, macropores) are achieved by ice template and huge amounts of gas during carbothermal reduction. Excellent absorption performance is achieved at a very low Co/C content (10% and 15%), which is a great success to design ultralight absorbers. At 10% content level, the effective absorption bandwidth is 5.0 GHz with a thin thickness of 1.8 mm, while the absorption bandwidth is 4.7 GHz with a thin thickness of 1.5 mm at 15% Co/C content level. The excellent absorption performance is attributed to excellent impedance matching resulting from synergy of cobalt and carbon and strong interfacial polarization induced by the hierarchical porous microstructures. This work provides a new pathway of designing ultralight absorbers with the advantage of thin thickness and wide bandwidth. Graphical Abstract Excellent absorption performance is achieved at only 10% Co/C content level, a success to design ultralight absorbers.