Engineering strategies in low-dimensional microwave absorbers: Fundamentals, progress, and outlook

The ubiquitous electromagnetic interference and pollution have become a deteriorating issue with the rapid advancement of wireless communication technologies and devices. Developing enhanced microwave absorber is a feasible and persistent research hotspot to counter serious electromagnetic radiation problems. To this end, state-of-the-art low-dimensional materials, including zero-dimensional, one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and mixed-dimensional nanoarchitectures have sprung up on account of their built-in merits including the modulable crystal and electronic structures, exquisite nanoarchitectures, and quantum and dielectric confinement effects. However, the pristine low-dimensional materials perform inferior status in microwave attenuation due to the monotonous dielectric or magnetic responses, the incoordination between wavelength and nanoscale, and semi-empirical electromagnetic attenuation mechanism. Therefore, the elaborate engineering strategies in low-dimensional materials, such as architecture modification, interface engineering, defect engineering, entropy manipulation, and dielectric-magnetic synergy are motivated to contend for enhanced microwave absorption performance. This review provides the cutting-edge progresses of engineering strategies for low-dimensional microwave absorbers. Firstly, the underlying microwave attenuation mechanisms of low-dimensional microwave absorbers are introduced thoroughly. Then, the leading-edge engineering strategies and low-dimensional microwave absorbers inspired by the basic principle of microwave attenuation are summarized and outlined. In the end, the challenges, and outlooks for engineering strategies in low-dimensional microwave absorbers are combed to pinpoint the long-term development orientation.