Electrospinning of lightweight TiN fibers with superior microwave absorption

In this work, the titanium nitride (TiN) ceramic fibers with average diameter of ~ 1 μm and length of tens of micrometer range were synthesized by electrospinning followed by thermal nitridation reaction. And their dielectric property and EM wave absorption performance were investigated in the GHz range. Due to the strong high-frequency polarization effect resulted from the large surface contact area of the obtained TiN fibers, satisfactory EM wave attenuation was achieved with a low absorbent content of only 14.5 wt%. Specifically, the composite TiN fibers displayed an ultrawide effective absorption bandwidth of 4.1 GHz with > 90% EM attenuation and an optimal reflection loss as high as − 47.2 dB at the thickness of 2 mm. The combined excellent EM absorption property with high-temperature and corrosion resistance, simple production procedure and low cost endow TiN fibers as a promising candidate for lightweight microwave absorption materials suitable for harsh application conditions.