Effective dielectric attenuation for excellent microwave absorption with broadband response of carbon hollow microspheres derived from resin

Carbon hollow microspheres as microwave absorption materials (MAMs) are of great significance in the research focuses owing to their lightweight, good impedance matching, and modifiable dielectric properties. However, it is still a huge challenge to distinguish the contribution of dielectric attenuation between carbon intrinsic feature and hollow structure due to the lack of appropriate model materials. Then, the inadequate analysis of effective dielectric attenuation resulted in the construction of carbon hollow microspheres semiempirical and often lacked precise modification of microstructure. Herein, a series of carbon hollow microspheres with controllable graphitization and thickness of shell derived from phenolic resin coated on polystyrene microspheres that fully decomposed were synthesized, which is free of the impact of template residue. The carbon fragments ground from hollow microspheres exhibit the same broadband response as hollow microspheres, with effective bandwidth (RL ≤ –10 dB) of 7.6 GHz, while their electromagnetic wave loss mechanisms are distinct. The high dielectric loss of carbon fragments with the same intrinsic characteristics as carbon hollow microspheres is mainly caused by dipole polarization relaxation and enhancement of electrical conductivity ascribed to overlapping between carbon sheets. For the hollow structure, in addition to dipole polarization relaxation attributed to carbon intrinsic feature, the effective dielectric loss is also comprised of the interfacial polarization in advantage due to the effective heterogeneous interface between air and carbon shell. This work provides a simplified model to clarify the effect of carbon intrinsic feature and microstructure on the dielectric loss of carbon hollow microspheres.