Carbon based Composite Materials for Microwave Absorption in Low Frequency S and C Band: A Review

With the rapid advancement of 5G technologies and electronic devices, there is a growing demand for microwave absorbing materials, especially those effective in low frequency microwave bands (2–8 GHz), making it an essential requirement. In recent years, many innovative microwave absorbers have been developed for low frequency absorption, with carbon/magnetic composite materials becoming particularly promising due to their various loss mechanisms and optimized impedance matching characteristics over a wide frequency range. However, there is currently a lack of a comprehensive review that summarizes the findings on low frequency absorbers. This review article thoroughly examines the current research on carbon/magnetic composite materials with efficient absorption performance in the low-frequency S and C bands. It provides a detailed discussion of the microwave absorption performance of these composite materials. Furthermore, the composite design strategies, synthesis techniques, microstructure performance relationship, and microwave attenuation mechanisms are summarized. Lastly, the challenges and future outlook for low frequency microwave absorbing materials are addressed. This review article aspires to provide new insights into designing and synthesizing composite materials to accomplish effective low-frequency microwave absorption, thereby promoting practical applications.