Engineering synergistic coatings: High-performance Cu/Co bimetal-modified fibrous carbon networks for enhanced anticorrosion and electromagnetic wave absorption in harsh environments

Conventional electromagnetic wave absorbing (EMA) materials are often plagued by limited absorption capacity and susceptibility to corrosion-induced degradation, which limit their development and application in harsh environments such as high salt /humidity, and acid/alkali conditions. In this paper, conductive metal Cu and magnetic metal Co were loaded on carbon fiber through electrospinning combined with high-temperature carbonization, yielding high performance CuCo carbon nanofibers for electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption, and combining with organic coating to improve its corrosion resistance. The carbonization temperature serves as a pivotal factor controlling the microwave absorption characteristics of EMA materials. Notably, when the thermal treatment is optimized at 800 °C, the resultant composite nanofibers demonstrate enhanced electromagnetic attenuation coupled with superior broadband absorption properties. When the matching thickness is 2.7 mm, the minimum reflection loss (RL_min) is −44.74 dB. At the same time, the results of electrochemical impedance show that CuCo carbon nanofibers also have excellent corrosion resistance, which provides technical support for the application of electromagnetic absorption materials in harsh environment, especially for marine environments.