Constructing of Co nanosheets decorating with WS2 nanoclusters for enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption

Abstract

Artificially designing and preparing composites with unique structure is one of important ways to effectively improve the electromagnetic wave absorption performance. In this study, binary flower-like WS 2 /Co hybrid composites through anchoring WS 2 nanoclusters on Co nanosheets have been successfully developed. Attributing to the hierarchical structure of the composites, the effective interfacial polarization verifying from distinct Cole-Cole semicircles could improve the dielectric loss substantially, also it enabled the multiple reflections of the incident waves which benefitted for promoting the energy dissipation. Furthermore, the host of lamellate Co could maintain the magnetic characteristic and supply the magnetic loss dominantly caused by natural and exchange resonance deriving from the high planar anisotropy, the guest of WS 2 nanoclusters could induce dipole polarization deriving from vacancies of W and S atoms. As a result, excellent wave absorption performance could be achieved for the composites with the minimum RL (RL min ) of − 46.5 dB at 10.2 GHz under a small thickness of 1.7 mm, accompanied by a wide effective bandwidth (RL<−10 dB) covering from 2.7 to 18 GHz with integrated thicknesses from 1.0 to 5.0 mm. Prospectively, this work provides a new opportunity to fabricate the valuable materials for practical electromagnetic wave absorbing applications. • A novel flower-like binary WS 2 /Co hybrid composites are designed and fabricated. • Magnetic metallic Co nanosheets played a role as host, and WS 2 nanocluster anchored on the surface of Co nanosheets. • The minimum RL value can reach up to − 46.5 dB at a thin matching thickness merely at 1.7 mm. • The WS 2 /Co hybrid composites possessed diverse and synergetic electromagnetic wave loss mechanism.