Core-shell MXene/nitrogen-doped C heterostructure for wide-band electromagnetic wave absorption at thin thickness

MXenes have been utilized to fabricate electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbers owning to large aspect ratio, high electronic conductivity, and favorable hydrophilicity. In this work, the core-shell MXene/nitrogen-doped (N-doped) C heterostructure was firstly prepared via HCl and LiF etching, in-situ polymerization, and carbonization. When mixed with paraffin at a low filler loading of 30 wt%, the MXene/N-doped C hybrid reached a wide effective absorption bandwidth of 5.0 GHz (13.0 GHz–18.0 GHz) at a thin thickness of 1.72 mm. The stronger ability of attenuating EMWs promoted the absorption performance of MXene/N-doped C, overcoming the deficiency in the characteristics of impedance compared with its counterparts. This work provides a new insight in manufacturing MXene-based absorbers to alleviate EMW pollution by delicate structural design and effective multi-component strategy.