Preparation of titanium carbide nanowires for application in electromagnetic wave absorption

The TiC nanowires with high specific surface areas were prepared by a chloride-assisted carbothermal reduction. The 30wt% loaded sample shows strong EM wave absorption capability in X-band, due to the good impedance match degree and destructive interference at the air–material interface. TiC nanowires show a potential as a new-type of stealth materials. •TiC nanowires with high surface areas were prepared by a carbothermal reduction.•The TiC nanowire/paraffin sample had good electromagnetic loss abilities in X-band.•The matching thickness was determined by the quarter-wavelength law and impedance match. TiC nanowires were synthesized by chloride-assisted carbothermal reaction, using sucrose, TiO2 and NaCl as precursors and Ni(NO3)2·6H2O as a catalyst. The TiC nanowires have specific surface areas of 186.7m2g−1 with a diameter of 200–400nm and length of dozens micrometers. The hybrids of TiC nanowires/paraffin exhibited distinct electromagnetic wave absorbing ability in X-band (8.2–12.4GHz). The optimal reflection loss (RL) of −51dB at 11.8GHz and the bandwidth of 3.0GHz (RL