1D/2D CoTe₂@MoS₂ composites constructed by CoTe₂ nanorods and MoS₂ nanosheets for efficient electromagnetic wave absorption

Rational design of the components and microstructure is regarded as an efficacious strategy for the high-performance electromagnetic wave absorbing (EMWA) materials. Herein, the CoTe₂@MoS₂ nanocomposites with CoTe₂ nanorods and MoS₂ nanosheets were synthesized via a hydrothermal method. The microstructure and composition of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The CoTe₂@MoS₂ composite was composed of stacked CoTe₂ as the core and intertwined MoS₂ nanosheets as the shell. The electromagnetic parameters of the CoTe₂@MoS₂ composites were investigated by vector network analyzer (VNA). The EMWA property of the composite showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the increasing content of MoS₂. When the mass ratio of MoS₂ and CoTe₂ was 1:1, the CoTe₂@MoS₂ composite exhibited the minimum reflection loss value of −68.10 dB at 4.71 GHz, and the effective absorption bandwidth value might reach 4.64 GHz (13.08–17.72 GHz) at a matching thickness of 1.60 mm with filler loading of 50 wt.%. The extraordinary EMWA property was attributed to the optimized impedance matching, multiple scattering and reflections, dipole polarization, conductive loss, and interfacial polarization. Therefore, the present approach to the design of microstructure and interface engineering offers a crucial way to construct high-performance EMW absorbers.