Hollow Engineering to Co@N-Doped Carbon Nanocages via Synergistic Protecting-Etching Strategy for Ultrahigh Microwave Absorption

Rational manipulation of hollow structure with uniform heterojunctions is evolving as an effective approach to meet the lightweight and high-performance microwave absorption for metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) derived absorbers. Herein, a new and controlled synergistic protecting-etching strategy is proposed to construct shelled ZIF-67 rhombic dodecahedral cages using tannic acid under theoretical guidance, then hollow Co@N-doped carbon nanocages with uniform heterojunctions and hierarchical micro-meso-macropores are obtained via a pyrolysis process, which addresses the shortcomings of using sacrificing templates or corrosive agents. The outer Co@N-doped carbon shell, composed of highly dispersive core-shell heterojunctions, possesses micro-mesopores while the inner hollow macroporous cavity endows the absorbers with lightweight characteristics. Accordingly, the maximum reflection loss is −60.6 dB at 2.4 mm and the absorption bandwidth reaches 5.1 GHz at 1.9 mm with 10 wt% filler loading, exhibiting superior specific reflection loss compared with the vast majority of previous MOFs derived absorbers. Furthermore, this synergistic protecting-etching strategy provides inspiration for precisely creating a hollow void inside other MOFs crystals and broadens the desirable candidates for lightweight and high-efficient microwave absorbers.