Carbon nanofilm stabilized twisty V2O3 nanorods with enhanced multiple polarization behavior for electromagnetic wave absorption application

• Core-shell V 2 O 3 @C nanocomposite was constructed by a two-step strategy. • V 2 O 3 @C shows enhanced electrical conductivity and abundant defects. • Effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) gets to 7.21 GHz at ultra-low thickness. • Multiple polarization and conductance loss are used to analyze the absorbing mechanism. Vanadium (V) oxides exhibit low electrical conductivity and poor polarization properties, especially in that V 2 O 3 has low stability and is easily oxidized to higher valence V oxides. To solve this problem, we herein provide a two-step strategy for the synthesis of carbon nanofilm stabilized twisty V 2 O 3 nanorods (V 2 O 3 @C), including a hydrothermal reaction and a controlled pyrolysis process. Conductivity tests and electron-spin resonance (ESR) spectra indicate that the coating of carbon nanofilm not only enhances the electrical conductivity but also generates abundant defects. The electromagnetic waves absorption (EMA) results suggest that V 2 O 3 @C exhibits excellent EMA performance at ultra-low thickness, where the effective absorption bandwidth gets to 7.21 GHz at 1.7 mm and the maximal absorption reaches –56 dB. Enhanced conductivity loss and improved multiple polarization relaxation were used to illustrate the absorbing mechanism of V 2 O 3 @C. This work provides new insights into the design of advanced nanocomposites for EMA applications.