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High-yield carbon derived from commercial phenol–formaldehyde resin for broadband microwave absorption by balancing conductivity and polarization loss

  • Composites & nanocomposites
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Abstract

Lightweight and chemically stable carbon are widely applied as attractive microwave absorption materials (MAMs). However, the effective response bandwidth of pure carbonaceous MAMs is limited due to the imbalance between conductivity and polarization loss. Herein, carbon with a large number of amorphous/nanocrystalline uneven phase interfaces prepared from commercial phenol–formaldehyde resin (PF) through simple anoxic carbonization exhibited excellent microwave absorption performance by balancing conductivity and polarization loss. Benefiting from the modification of the carbon nanocrystalline, a suitable electrical conductivity is obtained with a large number of amorphous/nanocrystalline uneven phase interfaces, allowing more incident microwaves to be lost. Thus, PF-650 exhibits a strong reflection loss of − 59.62 dB and a broadband effective microwave absorption of 6.32 GHz at 2.35 mm. In contrast to typical carbonaceous MAMs with multiple chemical compositions and complicated microstructures, this work provides a promising approach to the preparation of highly efficient and yielding carbonaceous materials for practical applications.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51802278), Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (No. E2022203082, B2021203012), and Science and Technology Project of Higher Education in Hebei Province (QN2021140).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hebei Key Laboratory of Heavy Metal Deep-Remediation in Water and Resource Reuse, State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, Hebei, China

    Yuning Shi, Xueai Li, Wanchun Guo, Kesong Tian & Haiyan Wang

  2. The BioComposites Centre, Bangor University, Bangor, LL57 2UW, UK

    Qiuyun Liu & Robert Elias

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    Can Zhang

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  1. Yuning Shi
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10853_2023_8465_MOESM1_ESM.docx

FTIR spectrum and TG curve of PF of PF, the TEM image of PF-600/650/700/800, C/H and C/O mass ratio of PF-600/650/700/800, XRD pattern of the definition of the parameter R and deconvoluted Raman spectra for PF-600/700/800, Frequency-dependent complex permeability: real part, imaginary part, attenuation constant α and Cole–Cole plots of PF-600/650/700/800, nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms and pore size distributions calculated result of PF-600/650/700/800, the impedance matching value at the optimum effective absorption bandwidth condition of the PF-600/650/700/800, carbon yield of different precursors, the elementary compositions of PF-600/650/700/800.

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Shi, Y., Li, X., Liu, Q. et al. High-yield carbon derived from commercial phenol–formaldehyde resin for broadband microwave absorption by balancing conductivity and polarization loss. J Mater Sci 58, 7048–7059 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08465-9

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