Recent progress of nanomaterials for microwave absorption

Abstract Microwave absorption has played very important role in various civil and military applications ranging from wireless communication and anti-radar detection of war fighters, and recent years have witnessed a burst of the exploration of nanomaterials for the application in microwave absorption application in recent years. This article presents a comprehensive review on the recent research progress of nanomaterials for microwave absorption, including the basic mechanism of microwave absorption (e.g., dielectric loss, magnetic loss, dielectric/magnetic loss coupling), measurement principle (e.g., fundamentals of analysis, performance evaluation, common interaction pathways: Debye relaxation, Eddy current loss, natural resonance, size and shape factors), and the advances and performance review in microwave absorption (e.g., absorption bandwidth, reflection loss values, absorption peak position) using various nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, graphenes, oxides, sulfides, phosphides, carbides, polymers and metal organic frameworks. Overall, this article not only provides an introduction on the fundamentals of microwave absorption research, but also presents a timely update on the research progress of the microwave absorption performance of various nanomaterials.