In situ construction of ZIF-67 derived Mo₂C@cobalt/carbon composites toward excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties

Electromagnetic wave (EM) absorption materials with multi-loss mechanisms and optimized impedance matching have attracted considerable attention as a means to combat the ever-increasing electromagnetic pollution. Molybdenum carbide (Mo₂C) with outstanding environmental stability and high conductivity is becoming popular as EM absorption materials. Herein, the CoMoO₄@ZIF-67 precursor was synthesized by an in situ sacrificial template method, followed by calcining to synthesize porous Mo₂C@cobalt/carbon (Mo₂C@Co/C) composites. The homogeneously dispersed Mo₂C and Co nanoparticles as well as the porous structures resulted from the novel in situ fabrication strategy could generate abundant interfaces and induce effective multi-loss mechanisms including polarization loss, conductivity loss, magnetic loss, and so on. The as-prepared optimal composite (Mo₂C@Co/C-10) demonstrates superior electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption performance with a maximum reflection loss value of −37.9 dB at the matching thickness of 2.3 mm, and the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 5.52 GHz was realized at 1.9 mm. The excellent EM wave absorption properties can be attributed to the good impedance matching, synergistic effects among different loss mechanisms, multiple reflection and scattering. This work not only developed an effective ternary EM absorption materials of Mo₂C@Co/C, but also propose a facile in situ strategy to fabricate more highly- dispersed mecarbide-basedased materials.