WS2 nanosheets anchored on N-doped carbon fibers for superior electromagnetic wave absorption

The carbon fiber three-dimensional (3D) network structure causes conduction loss due to the induced current under an electromagnetic (EM) field, while it can serve as a substrate for the growth of other materials to construct carbon fiber-based composites. Usually, introducing other dielectric loss materials on the carbon fiber surface can adjust the EM parameters and impedance matching, and enhance the loss ability. N-doped carbon fibers anchored by WS2 nanosheets (NCFs@WS2) are reported in this work. When the filling ratio in paraffin is 10 wt%, the maximum reflection loss (RL) value reaches 81.1 dB at 3.5 mm. Additionally, the maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) value reaches 6.24 GHz (9.44 similar to 15.68 GHz) when the thickness is 3.0 mm. The introduction of WS2 nanosheets not only enhances the multiple scattering of EM waves, but also improves the interfacial polarization loss and dipole polarization loss. Therefore, the superior EM wave absorption performance of NCFs@WS2 is attributed to the good impedance matching, as well as the synergistic effect of conduction loss and polarization loss. This work enriches the research on carbon fiber-based composites and their EM wave absorption performance.