Great enhancement of electromagnetic wave absorption of MWCNTs@carbonaceous CoO composites derived from MWCNTs-interconnected zeolitic imidazole framework

Associated with the unique structure and superior properties of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) of Co-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), we synthesized the MWCNTs@carbonaceous CoO composites of a 3D interconnected network using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as decoration through the wet chemical and pyrolysis method. Due to the mutual coordination between proper magnetic loss and strong dielectric loss together with perfect impedance match, the MWCNTs@carbonaceous CoO composites exhibit the maximal reflection loss (RL) value of −50.2 dB with 1.84 mm thickness at 14.3 GHz, absorbing bandwidth (RL ≤ −10 dB) of 13.2 GHz (4.8–18 GHz) with respect to 1.0–4.0 mm thickness range. More importantly, the content of composites added to paraffin matrix is merely 10 wt%. In addition, the synergistic effect between CoO NPs and MWCNTs is also beneficial to the highly efficient electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption of the composites. Therefore, the obtained CoO NPs/MOF-derived composites with lightweight and thin performance can be an attractive candidate of the EM wave absorptive materials.