Recent progress on carbon-based microwave absorption materials for multifunctional applications: A review

With the rapid development of 5G wireless communication and radar detection technology, how to reduce the threat of microwave radiation to people's health and achieve the excellent stealth performance are highly required. Microwave absorption (MA) materials are crucial to solving these problems and have received widespread attention. Compared to other MA materials, carbon-based materials stand out for the unique structure and properties, such as low density, strong dielectric loss, chemical durability and outstanding mechanical properties. These outstanding features make carbon-based materials become the most potential MA materials and be widely used in the development of multi-functional applications. This work reviews the new frontiers of carbon-based MA materials as well as the special absorption mechanisms. Subsequently, the new advancements in the multifunctional carbon-based MA materials are highlighted, including thermal insulation, infrared stealth, corrosion-resistant, self-healing and other applications of carbon-based MA materials. Finally, this review summarizes the future research direction, the main challenges and possible solutions on carbon-based MA materials.