Rime-like carbon paper@Bi2S3 hybrid structure for efficient and broadband microwave absorption

Abstract Although metal chalcogenides have been widely utilized as microwave absorbers, it remains a challenge for them to achieve efficient and broadband absorption performance with low filler content. Herein, a series of rime-like carbon paper@Bi2S3 hybrid structures are manufactured by a facile one-step solvothermal process, whose morphology and microwave absorption properties also can be easily adjusted by the dosage control of raw materials. The Bi2S3 clusters are grown densely on the surface of carbon paper fibers, like the rime in winter. The collocation of carbon paper and Bi2S3 is beneficial to impedance matching and synergistically enhances microwave absorption capability based on various attenuation mechanisms, including interfacial/dipolar polarization loss, conduction loss, and multiple reflection. At a low filler content (only 5 wt%), the optimal reflection loss among these composites is −56.63 dB at 8.84 GHz with 3.3 mm thickness, and the broadest efficient absorption bandwidth is 7.32 GHz with a thickness of 2.4 mm, covering the whole Ku band. By adjusting the thickness, the total covered frequency range reaches 13.36 GHz (83.5% of 2–18 GHz). The as-prepared materials have unique microstructure and exhibit strong and broadband absorption performance with thin thickness and low filler content, enlightening future exploration of metal chalcogenides on high-quality microwave absorbers.