Microstructure evolution and excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performance of SiBCN fibers

In this work, SiBCN fibers with excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption performance were fabricated using electrospinning technology, followed by curing, pyrolysis, and heat treatment. Microstructure evolution and EMW absorption performance of SiBCN fibers after heat treatment at 1200–1600 °C were investigated. After heat treatment at 1200 °C, the conductive turbostratic C was precipitated from amorphous SiBCN fibers, resulting in minimum reflection loss (RL min ) reaching −63 dB and efficient absorption bandwidth (EAB) reaching 5.2 GHz. While turbostratic C and nano-SiC grains were simultaneously precipitated from SiBCN fibers heat treated at 1400 °C, and the RL min reached −67 dB. The excellent EMW absorption performance of SiBCN fibers was mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of conductive loss, dipole polarization, and interfacial polarization. This work can guide the fabrication of high-performance EMW-absorbing ceramic fibers.