Design and construction of lightweight C/Co heterojunction nanofibres for enhanced microwave absorption performance

C/Co composites are promising materials for electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption. In this work, C/Co nanofibres were synthesised via a facile electrospinning method followed by an in situ reduction process. The results indicate that the heterogeneous structure and Co content play a vital role in determining the EM wave absorption performance of the C/Co nanofibres. At 15 wt% Co content, the C/Co nanofibres exhibit optimal impedance matching and attenuation ability, and the minimum reflection loss for the sample with thickness 3.5mm is -58.8 dB. The effective absorption bandwidth reaches 12.9 GHz in the range of 2-18 GHz, which partially and completely covers the C and X-Ku bands, respectively. The EM wave absorption mechanism based on the conductive, dielectric, and magnetic losses is discussed in detail. The results indicate that the C/Co nanofibres possess significant potential for microwave absorption applications. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.