Facile Synthesis of Porous Nickel/Carbon Composite Microspheres with Enhanced Electromagnetic Wave Absorption by Magnetic and Dielectric Losses

Porous nickel/carbon (Ni/C) composite microspheres with diameters of ca. 1.2-1.5 mu m were fabricated by a solvothermal method combined with carbon reduction. The pore size of the synthesized Ni/C composite microspheres ranged from several nanometers to 50 nm. The porous Ni/C composite microspheres exhibited a saturation magnetization (M-s) of 53.5 emu g(-1) and a coercivity (H-c) of 51.4 Oe. When tested as an electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption material, the epoxy resin composites containing 60% and 75% porous Ni/C microspheres provided high-performance EM wave absorption at thicknesses of 3.0-11.0 and 1.6-7.0 mm in the corresponding frequency ranges of 2.0-12 and 2.0-18 GHz, respectively. The superior EM wave absorption performances of porous Ni/C composite microspheres were derived from the synergy effects generated by the magnetic loss of nickel, the dielectric loss of carbon, and the porous structure.