Abstract

The combination of carbon materials and ferrite materials has recently attracted increased interest in microwave absorption applications. Herein, a novel composite with cobalt cores encapsulated in a porous carbon shell was synthesized via a facile sintering process with a cobaltic metal–organic framework (Co-MOF-74) as the precursor. Because of the magnetic loss caused by the Co cores and dielectric loss caused by the carbon shell with a unique porous structure, together with the interfacial polarization between two components, the ferromagnetic composite exhibited enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption performance compared to traditional ferrite materials. With the thermal decomposition temperature of 800 °C, the optimal reflection loss value achieved −62.12 dB at 11.85 GHz with thin thickness (2.4 mm), and the bandwidth ranged from 4.1 to 18 GHz with more than 90% of the microwave that could be absorbed. The achieved performance illustrates that the as-prepared porous Co–C core–shell composite shows considerable potential as an effective microwave absorber.