Defect and interface engineering in core@shell structure hollow carbon@MoS₂ nanocomposites for boosted microwave absorption performance

Defect and interface engineering are efficient approaches to adjust the physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials. In order to effectively utilize these strategies for the improvement of microwave absorption properties (MAPs), in this study, we reported the synthesis of hollow carbon shells and hollow carbon@MoS₂ nanocomposites by the template-etching and template-etching-hydrothermal methods, respectively. The obtained results indicated that the degree of defect for hollow carbon shells and hollow carbon@MoS₂ could be modulated by the thickness of hollow carbon shell, which effectively fulfilled the optimization of electromagnetic parameters and improvement of MAPs. Furthermore, the microstructure investigations revealed that the precursor of hollow carbon shells was encapsulated by the sheet-like MoS₂ in high efficiency. And the introduction of MoS₂ nanosheets acting as the shell effectively improved the interfacial effects and boosted the polarization loss capabilities, which resulted in the improvement of comprehensive MAPs. The elaborately designed hollow carbon@MoS₂ samples displayed very outstanding MAPs including strong absorption capabilities, broad absorption bandwidth, and thin matching thicknesses. Therefore, this work provided a viable strategy to improve the MAPs of microwave absorbers by taking full advantage of their defect and interface engineering.