Ultra-thin broccoli-like SCFs@TiO₂ one-dimensional electromagnetic wave absorbing material

As everlasting emerging and utilization of electronic devices, the demand for developing excellent electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials is relatively urgent. Herein, the broccoli-like short carbon fibers (SCFs)@TiO₂ composites were synthesized by a simple one-pot hydrothermal method, where TiO₂ was grown vertically on the surface of short carbon fibers to form an independent broccoli-like conductive network, which is beneficial to the conduction loss and strong interfacial polarization, leading to enhanced EM wave absorption capability. Particularly, the uncalcined composite not only showed excellent EM wave absorption performance owing to the significantly improved complex permittivity, but also featured with simple preparation method to save cost. The eddy current loss was also found in our samples which caused magnetic loss mechanism due to the ring current produced in the conductive network. The maximum reflection loss of the SCFs@TiO₂ composites reached up to −58.63 dB at 4.56 GHz. Remarkably, even if at the ultra-thin thickness of 1.1 mm, the effective bandwidth (RL ≤ −10 dB) of 3.4 GHz could be obtained. All results indicated that the broccoli-like SCFs@TiO₂ composites can be used as an ideal material for preparing light and efficient EM wave absorption devices.