An ultralight nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel anchored by Ni-NiO nanoparticles for enhanced microwave adsorption performance

Abstract Low density electromagnetic microwave adsorption materials (MAMs) have attracted much attention. Here, chitosan was used to prepare ultralight nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel anchored by Ni-NiO nanoparticles (Ni-NiO/NCA) via an explosion method. The results showed that NCA had better dielectric properties and lower density (0.46 g/cm 3 ). The Ni-NiO/NCA effectively combines multiple dielectric/magnetic loss mechanisms. When the absorbing layer is 1.5 mm, the sample has magnetic properties. The strongest absorption is at −41.9 dB with a frequency of 15.2 GHz; the density is only 0.42 g/cm 3 . We believe this nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel anchored by magnetic nanoparticles via an explosion method can quickly prepare lightweight electromagnetic MAMs.