Lightweight hierarchical composite aerogel for ultrawideband microwave absorption

Lightweight aerogel absorbers, especially with polymer, carbon and mineral structures, are considered to be the most efficient materials for microwave absorption. Here, montmorillonite (MMT) nanosheets were decorated by MoSe 2 and activated carbon (AC) nanoparticles to form MoSe₂/AC/MMT composite. Then, MoSe₂/AC/MMT was loaded into the chitosan matrix as filler, with different weight percentage of 35, 50, and 75 to produce MoSe₂/AC/MMT–Chitosan aerogels named as Ch2-Ch4, and a sample without AC, named as Ch1. The results showed that, Ch3 was the optimal sample with the highest minimum reflection loss (-88 dB) at a thickness of 2.6 mm. All samples had broad absorption bands covering the entire X and Ku bands. Covering a spherical perfect electric conductor (PEC) with each aerogel reduces the radar cross section (RCS) and scattered far field by 30–60 dB and 30–33 dB, respectively Therefore, the MoSe 2 /AC/MMT–Chitosan aerogel demonstrates promising potential for lightweight microwave absorption applications.