Porous Co9S8 nanotubes with the percolation effect for lightweight and highly efficient electromagnetic wave absorption

Abstract

Developing lightweight and thin electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers with a broad bandwidth remains a major challenge for reducing EM pollution originating from the rapidly increasing amount of electronics. Herein, porous Co₉S₈ nanotubes synthesized through a facile self-template method are applied as a single-component EM wave absorber. Based on percolation theory, an appropriate balance between excellent impedance matching and strong loss ability can be achieved for the Co₉S₈/paraffin composite with 30 wt% filler loading, giving rise to a broad effective absorption bandwidth almost covering the entire Ku band, or X band with varied Co₉S₈ loadings. This study provides a new concept for the design of single-component EM wave absorbing materials with even superior performance to those of many multicomponent absorbers.