Hollow Co9S8-carbon fiber hierarchical heterojunction with Schottky contacts for tunable microwave absorption

Abstract

Heterogeneous interface engineering of hollow hierarchical structures with Schottky contacts is an attractive approach for designing light weight and efficient microwave absorption (MA) materials. Herein, hollow Co9S8-carbon fiber (CF) composites were prepared by solvothermal, electrostatic spinning, and pyrolysis methods. CF was used as the main chain and hollow Co9S8 derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) was homogeneously embedded in it, which overcame the difficulties of the traditional template method and effectively avoided the particle agglomeration problem. The interface polarization relaxation process is improved by the construction of Co9S8-CF heterojunction with Schottky contacts, which effectively modulates the dielectric loss. The internal hollow macroporous cavity and CF with lightweight properties enhance the reflection attenuation of the internal cavity. In addition, the electromagnetic characteristics can be flexibly adjusted to achieve the tunable MA performance by varying the reaction parameters. As a result, the Co9S8-CF-3–700 exhibits optimum MA performance, with a reflection loss (RL) of −60.83 dB at 10.85 GHz and a thickness of 2.76 mm. The effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) extends to 5.6 GHz at a thickness of 2.19 mm. This research provides a promising approach to creating light weight and efficient MA materials with potential applications in radar and communication systems.