Facile synthesis and wide-band electromagnetic wave absorption properties of carbon-coated ZnO nanorods

Abstract

<p>In this work, a facile and scalable acetylene decomposition method was employed to synthesize carbon-coated ZnO (ZnO@C) nanorods. The characterization of morphology and structure analysis demonstrate that ZnO nanorod was well coated by an amorphous carbon shell with a thickness of about 20 nm. Comparted with ZnO, ZnO@C exhibit significantly enhanced microwave absorption properties. The effective absorption bandwidth with RL values exceeding –10 dB can reach 5.3 GHz for ZnO@C with a matching thickness of 2.5 mm. The excellent microwave absorption arose from enhanced dielectric loss caused by interfacial polarization, dipole polarization and the formation of conductive network.</p