Plasma-assisted doping of pyrolyzed corn husk strengthened by MoS2/polyethersulfone for fascinating microwave absorbing/shielding and energy saving properties

Abstract

To address the ever-increasing electromagnetic pollution, numerous efforts have been made. In this case, biomass-derived materials as green, affordable, lightweight, capable, and sustainable microwave-absorbing materials have become a research hotspot; meanwhile, transition metal-based microwave absorbers and sulfide structures as polarizable electromagnetic absorbers have intrigued researchers. Alternatively, plasma treatment as a novel strategy has been applied in different fields, and doping strategies are in the spotlight to modify the microwave-absorbing features of materials. Thus, herein, corn husk biomass was pyrolyzed and doped with N via plasma treatment, followed by coating with MoS₂ nanoflowers to promote its microwave-absorbing characteristics. More interestingly, the influence of absorbing media was carefully evaluated using polyethersulfone (PES) and polyethylene (PE) as polymeric matrices. The as-developed MoS₂/N-doped pyrolyzed corn husk (PCH) demonstrated outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMISE) based on its absorption covering the entire K-band frequency with ≈100% shielding, a fascinating reflection loss (RL) of −95.32 dB at 21.28 GHz, and outstanding efficient bandwidth (EBW) of 7.61 GHz (RL ≤ −10) with a thickness of only 0.45 mm. It is noteworthy that the energy-saving features of the final composites were precisely investigated using an infrared (IR) absorption approach.