Incorporation of magnetic component to construct (TiC/Ni)@C ternary composite with heterogeneous interface for enhanced microwave absorption

Abstract To effectively optimize electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption performance and reduce the reflection at the absorbent-air interface, the absorbents coupling magnetic/dielectric loss components to construct heterogeneous interfaces are urgent. Herein, we report a facile method for preparing a unique (TiC/Ni)@C ternary composite. The incorporation of Ni into TiC/C matrix to form heterogeneous interface not only ameliorates impedance matching, but also introduces the additional interface polarization for tuning dielectric loss capacity. Comparing with the weak absorption performance of TiC@C composite, the minimum reflection loss (RL) value of (TiC/Ni)@C composite can reach up to −43.4 dB at 7.0 GHz with the 3.4 mm thickness, and the effective bandwidth of RL below −10 dB can be up to 5.1 GHz at the 1.8 mm thickness. The results reveal that the efficient synergistic effect between magnetic Ni and dielectric TiC/C plays a more important role for the absorption performance, comparing to the merely strong dielectric loss of TiC@C composite.