Reversible Electromagnetic Regime Transition in Defect-Programmed Carbon Textiles Toward Ultrabroadband Microwave Absorption.

Authors

Rui Liang, Xiaoyu Bai, Changhuai Ye, Meifang Zhu

Published in

Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). Pages e76026. Sep 27, 2026. Epub Sep 27, 2026.

Abstract

Carbon textiles are attractive for lightweight electromagnetic protection but typically suffer from fixed functionality governed by intrinsic material properties. Here, we report a defect-programmed carbon textile that enables thermally reconstructed modulation of electromagnetic response through electronic-structure regulation. Sulfonation-induced crosslinking followed by carbonization establishes a conductive sp² network exhibiting high electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (∼43 dB) dominated by reflection, while subsequent thermal oxidation disrupts long-range electronic connectivity and introduces defect-mediated polarization, transforming the system into a microwave-absorbing regime. The electromagnetic response is governed by a conductivity-window effect, in which an optimal balance between impedance matching and intrinsic dissipation enables efficient microwave absorption. This balance leads to a non-monotonic evolution of absorption performance, with a maximum effective absorption bandwidth of 6.9 GHz achieved at intermediate oxidation. Importantly, the electromagnetic functionality can be repeatedly reconstructed through sequential ex situ thermal treatments, enabling switching between EMI shielding and microwave absorption regimes. Furthermore, the textile form enables direct integration into multilayer architectures, and CST simulations predict that structural amplification can extend absorption to 2-18 GHz. This work establishes a strategy for regulating electromagnetic response in continuous conductive networks and provides a textile-based platform for coupling electronic reconstruction with structural design toward broadband microwave absorption.

PMID:
42801483
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 28 Sep 2026.

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