The porous Fe 3 O 4 /carbon core/shell nanorods were fabricated via a three-step process. R-Fe 2 O 3 nanorods were first obtained, and R-Fe 2 O 3 /carbon core/shell nanorods were subsequently fabricated using glucose as a carbon source by a hydrothermal method, in which the thickness of the carbon coating was about 3.5 nm. Fe 3 O 4 /carbon core/shell nanorods were synthesized after an annealing treatment of the product above under a mixture of Ar/H 2 flow. After the H 2 deoxidation process, the Fe 3 O 4 core exhibited a character of porosity; the thickness of the carbon shell was decreased to about 2.5 nm, and its degree of graphitization was enhanced. The interesting core/ shell nanostructures are ferromagnetic at room temperature, and the Verwey temperature was about 120 K. Electromagnetic properties of the core/shell nanorodÀwax composite were investigated in detail. The maximum reflection loss was about À27.9 dB at 14.96 GHz for the composite with a thickness of 2.0 mm, and the absorption bandwidth with the reflection loss below À18 dB was up to 10.5 GHz for the absorber with the thickness of 2À5 mm. The excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties of the porous Fe 3 O 4 /carbon core/shell nanorods were attributed to effective complementarities between the dielectric loss and the magnetic loss.

We report the cushioning behavior of highly agglomerated carbon nanotubes. The nanotube agglomerates can be repeatedly compacted to achieve large volume reduction (>50%) and expanded to nearly original volume without structural failure, like a robust porous cushion. At a higher pressure range (10-125 MPa), the energy absorbed per unit volume is 1 order of magnitude higher than conventional cushion materials such as foamy polystyrene. The structure of hierarchical agglomerates can be controlled for tailoring the cushioning properties and obtaining a lower cushioning coefficient (higher energy absorption) over a wide range of pressures (1-100 MPa). The mechanism was studied in terms of morphology evolution of the nanotube aggregates and pore size distribution during compression.

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