L-lysine-regulated NiCo-LDH nanoarrays on carbon cloth for broadband microwave absorption at an ultrathin matching thickness

Achieving a broad effective absorption bandwidth at an ultrathin matching thickness remains a central challenge in the design of microwave absorbing materials. Herein, to the best of our knowledge, an amino-acid-mediated molecular regulation strategy is introduced for the first time into conductive textile/LDH microwave absorber design. L -lysine is employed as a molecular regulator to modulate the nucleation and growth of NiCo-LDH nanoarrays on flexible conductive carbon cloth, leading to the formation of denser and more uniform vertically aligned nanoarrays from the initially loose and disordered deposits. The optimized 1.0Lys sample achieves a minimum reflection loss of −25.0 dB at 17.2 GHz with an ultrathin matching thickness of only 1.00 mm and delivers a broad effective absorption bandwidth of 4.24 GHz at 1.09 mm, demonstrating that strong and broadband absorption are realized under ultrathin matching conditions. The enhanced absorption originates from the synergistic effects of L -lysine-regulated dense nanoarrays, abundant heterogeneous interfaces, molecule-related polar groups, high-frequency dielectric attenuation, and improved impedance matching. In addition, CST-based radar cross section simulations reveal effective high-frequency scattering suppression under different observation angles, highlighting its potential applicability in complex electromagnetic environments. This work provides a previously unexplored amino-acid-mediated molecular regulation route for designing flexible microwave absorbers with broad effective absorption bandwidths at ultrathin matching thicknesses.