Surfactant-induced morphology engineering in chitosan-derived carbon aerogels realizing high-efficiency absorption of electromagnetic wave

Despite the significant research advances in dielectric loss-type absorbents, developing high-efficiency electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbents dominated by the conduction loss are still challenging due to the imbalance between impedance matching and conduction loss. In this study, for the first time, high-efficiency EMW absorption governed by the conduction loss in chitosan-derived carbon aerogels was realized through surfactant-assisted morphology modification. Electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding between chitosan and surfactants were ingeniously applied to induce tightly-stacked nanosheets to transform into three-dimensional (3D) interwork structure and loosely-stacked porous nanosheets, respectively, and thus the moderately enhanced conductivity converted the original EMW-transparent carbon to EMW-absorbing carbon. Benefiting from the favorable balance of impedance matching and conduction loss, the carbon aerogels with 3D interwork structure showed a broad effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 7.2 GHz (2.8 mm) and minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −42.6 dB; and moreover, an ultra-wide EAB of 7.84 GHz at 2.9 mm occurred in the samples with loosen and wrinkled nanosheet structure, both outperforming most of reported carbon-based composite aerogels. This work provides a new insight for the morphology regulation and performance optimization of carbonaceous EMW absorbents. •High-efficiency EMW absorption governed by conduction loss was realized.•The good balance of impedance matching and conduction loss was achieved by morphology engineering.•Morphology modification of chitosan-derived carbon was achieved by surfactant at molecular level.•4. The broadband and strong absorption (EAB = 7.2 GHz, RLmin = −42.6 dB) were realized.