Nickel/Nickel phosphide composite embedded in N-doped carbon with tunable electromagnetic properties toward high-efficiency microwave absorption

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) derivative have drawn extensive attention in the field of microwave absorption for their various structure morphologies, low density and large surface areas. Herein, a novel multi-interfacial Nickel/Nickel phosphide composite embedded in N-doped carbon (Ni/NiP@NC) were successfully fabricated. The composition, magnetic properties and electromagnetic properties of the Ni/NiP@NC composite could be flexibly regulated by controlling the phosphorization degree. The Ni/NiP@NC composite exhibited excellent microwave absorption properties, with a minimum reflection loss (RL) value of about −56.1 dB at 17.2 GHz when the matching thickness was only 1.3 mm, and the corresponding effective absorption bandwidth (RL ≤ −10 dB) was 16 GHz (2–18 GHz) by regulating the thickness of the absorber. Relying on the results above, it can be reasonably believed the Ni/NiP@NC composite could provide a novel effective approach to design the high-performance microwave absorbing materials, especially for the low-frequency microwave absorbing.