Architectural design and interfacial engineering of CNTs@ZnIn2S4 heterostructure/cellulose aerogel for efficient electromagnetic wave absorption

To exploit the synergistic effect of architectural and nano-heterointerface engineering on developing high-performance electromagnetic (EM) absorbing materials, herein, a carbon nanotubes@ZnIn 2 S 4 nanosheets/cellulose nanofibers aerogel structure (CNTs@ZIS/CNF) is constructed. On the one hand, the air phase introduced interspersed in CNTs by the 3D porous aerogel structure can effectively avoid mismatched impedance matching and shielding behavior. At the same time, the interlaced ZIS nanosheet decorated on the CNTs maximized the heterointerface coupling effects to enrich the polarization loss mechanism. The optimized CNTs@ZIS/CNF shows an excellent EM absorbing performance with effective bandwidth of 5.8 GHz at a relatively thin thickness of 2.7 mm, more excellent than most present aerogel-shaped EM absorbing material. The multi-angel arch method is also used to verify the practical reflection loss of CNTs@ZIS/CNF, indicating its application potential to cope with the growing EM contaminate issue. Moreover, CNTs@ZIS/CNF exhibits other functions including thermal insulation and secondary recovery benefit from the dissoluble CNF-based porous structure. This work put forward a feasible method for the construction and optimization of high-efficient EM absorbing material. • A novel CNTs@ZIS/CNF heterostructure aerogel is constructed as EM absorbing material. • The 2D ZIS nanosheets are used to modify the 1D CNTs to construct high-efficient interfacial coupling. • The synthetic effects of architecture design and heterointerface engineering can enrich attenuation mechanisms. • The multi-angle arch method is used to verify the practical EM absorbing performance.