Polyimide aerogel-derived amorphous porous carbon/crystalline carbon composites for high-performance microwave absorption

High-performance polyimide-based porous carbon/crystalline composite absorbers (PIC/rGO and PIC/CNT) were prepared by vacuum freeze-drying and high-temperature pyrolysis. The excellent heat resistance of polyimides (PIs) ensured the integrity of their pore structure during high-temperature pyrolysis. The complete porous structure improves the interfacial polarization and impedance-matching conditions. Furthermore, adding appropriate rGO or CNT can improve the dielectric losses and obtain good impedance-matching conditions. The stable porous structure and strong dielectric loss enable fast attenuation of electromagnetic waves (EMWs) inside PIC/rGO and PIC/CNT. The minimum reflection loss (RL(min)) for PIC/rGO is −57.22 dB at 4.36 mm thickness. The effective absorption bandwidth (EABW, RL below −10 dB) for PIC/rGO is 3.12 GHz at 2.0 mm thickness. The RL(min) for PIC/CNT is −51.20 dB at 2.02 mm thickness. The EABW for PIC/CNT is 4.08 GHz at 2.4 mm thickness. The PIC/rGO and PIC/CNT absorbers designed in this work have simple preparations and excellent EMW absorption performances. Therefore, they can be used as candidate materials in EMW absorbing materials.