Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials play an increasingly important role in modern society for their multi-functional in military stealth and incoming 5G smart era. Dielectric loss EM wave absorbers and underlying loss mechanism investigation are of great significance to unveil EM wave attenuation behaviors of materials and guide novel dielectric loss materials design. However, current researches focus more on materials synthesis rather than in-depth mechanism study. Herein, comprehensive views toward dielectric loss mechanisms including interfacial polarization, dipolar polarization, conductive loss, and defect-induced polarization are provided. Particularly, some misunderstandings and ambiguous concepts for each mechanism are highlighted. Besides, in-depth dielectric loss study and novel dielectric loss mechanisms are emphasized. Moreover, new dielectric loss mechanism regulation strategies instead of regular components compositing are summarized to provide inspiring thoughts toward simple and effective EM wave attenuation behavior modulation.

Skin effect and high density are the main reasons that restrict the search of lightweight and high-performance metal-based electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials. Although nanostructured metal materials have been fabricated to solve above problems, poor dispersibility and chemical stability issues brought about by high surface energy due to existing nano-size effect. In this work, lightweight Ni foam with NiO/NiFe 2 O 4 in situ growth composites are fabricated by a facile and universal route as an effective alternative to high-performance metal-based EM wave absorber. Impressively, it is found that the foam structure and NiO/NiFe 2 O 4 /Ni components can synergistically boost EM wave absorption capacity. In detail, impedance matching from foam structure and energy dissipation from interfacial polarization and defect induced polarization provided by NiO/NiFe 2 O 4 mainly contributes to its ultra-broadband EM wave absorption performance. As a result, the as-prepared sample (0.06 g•cm −3 ) delivers a wide absorption bandwidth of 14.24 GHz and thin thickness of 0.6 mm, as well as, high specific effective absorption bandwidth of 19444.4 GHz•g −1 •cm −2 . This work sheds light on the novel view on the synergistic effect of structure and components on EM wave absorption behaviors and demonstrates a new pathway for preparation of lightweight and high-performance metal-based EM wave absorbers.

Defect engineering is an effective approach to manipulate electromagnetic (EM) parameters and enhance absorption ability, but defect induced dielectric loss dominant mechanism has not been completely clarified. Here the defect induced dielectric loss dominant mechanism in virtue of multi-shelled spinel hollow sphere for the first time is demonstrated. The unique but identical morphology design as well as suitable composition modulation for serial spinels can exclude the disturbance of EM wave dissipation from dipolar/interfacial polarization and conduction loss. In temperature-regulated defect in NiCo 2 O 4 serial materials, two kinds of defects, defect in spinel structure and oxygen vacancy are detected. Defect in spinel structure played more profound role on determining materials' EM wave dissipation than that of oxygen vacancy. When evaluated serial Co-based materials as absorbers, defect induced polarization loss is responsible for the superior absorption performance of NiCo 2 O 4 -based material due to its more defect sites in spinel structure. It is discovered that electron spin resonance test may be adopted as a novel approach to directly probe EM wave absorption capacities of materials. This work not only provides a strategy to prepare lightweight, efficient EM wave absorber but also illustrates the importance of defect engineering on regulation of materials' dielectric loss capacity.

The development of multicomponent dielectric composites has become a mainstream approach for obtaining excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbers. However, conventional component introduction is often performed blindly and based only on semiempirical rules, lacking precise modulation of components, interfaces, and defects during the reaction process. Herein, a competitive reaction mechanism is proposed for the first time, in which not only the metal ion concentration but also its characteristic are two feasible parameters to control the components, interfaces, and defects to tailor the EMW absorption performances of Cu-based binary metal sulfides. The appropriate heterogeneous interfaces and components and the abundant defects can synergistically benefit the EMW absorption capacity by forming perfect impedance matching and multiple dielectric polarizations. As a result, combined with these advantages, an effective absorption band) of 6.80 GHz (6.3-13.1 GHz) is achieved at 2.80 mm for Cu-Co binary metal sulfide, showing the sole middle-frequency broadband absorption of reported sulfidebased absorbers to date. Other Cu-based binary metal sulfides deliver different EMW absorption behaviors. This work breaks through the limitation of traditional component design, opening up a novel methodology for designing multicomponent composites beyond sulfides with broadband absorption.

Rational manipulation of multimetal hybrid materials (HMs) with tunable substitution or phases is evolving as an effective strategy to meet the controllable electromagnetic (EM) properties and EM wave (EMW) absorption. Herein, a new thermodynamic and kinetic cocontrol strategy is proposed to construct Zn/Co bimetal HMs with tuning ion and phase hybridization for synergistic effect on EM properties for the first time. Auxiliary chelating agent triethanolamine (TEA) dominates the phase separation by stepwise Zn/Co deposition in metal-organic frameworks, then the pyrolysis process under gradient temperature give rise to controllable ion hybridization products due to thermal motion. Benefiting from the tunable collaboration between defects polarization and interfacial polarization, the 700 °C HMs exhibit ultrahigh EM parameters and EMW absorption, of which products with no TEA deliver the effective absorbing bandwidth of 4.80 GHz (1.6 mm) and minimum reflection loss of −45.85 dB. The results indicated that synergistic effect of ion and phase hybridization can improve the defects induced "polarization centers" and coherent interfaces induced interfacial polarization. Furthermore, the comprehensive research and deep understanding on respective contribution of hybridization forms provide a precise inspiration in developing bimetal and even multimetal ferrite with tunable hybridization structure.