Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028

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Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

TiN/Ni/C ternary composites with expanded heterogeneous interfaces for

efficient microwave absorption
Yahong Zhang a, b, Hongjie Meng a, b, Yupeng Shi a, b, Xuefeng Zhang c, Caixia Liu a, b, Yu Wang a, b,
Chunhong Gong a, b, *, Jingwei Zhang b
a
Institute of Functional Polymer Composites, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China
b
National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Applied Technology of Hybrid Nanomaterials, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China
c
Innovative Center for Advanced Materials, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310012, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: At present, constructing composite materials with different absorbing mechanism is the popular strategy to
Microwave absorption realize the complementary and synergetic properties for electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials.
Heterogeneous interface However, the effective magnetic response is generally struggled to achieve. Besides the composition design
Interfacial polarization
strategy, fully utilizing the interfacial polarization is another efficient method for the fabrication of microwave
Impedance matching
absorbing (MA) materials. In this work, the titanium nitride/nickel/carbon (TiN/Ni/C) ternary composites were
fabricated through an in-situ thermal nitridation process. The EM dissipation factors can be regulated by rational
design of the ternary heterogeneous interface through varying the precursor composition. The minimum
reflection loss (RL) of the optimized TiN/Ni/C nanocomposite can reach 35.1 dB at 12.4 GHz and the effective
absorption bandwidth (EAB) is 3.6 GHz with a thickness of 1.7 mm. The enhanced absorbing property is
benefited from the effective structure design with tunable heterogeneous interface and continuous carbon matrix
which would achieve promoted interfacial polarization, conductivity relaxation and the electromagnetic
impedance matching. Special structures of TiN/Ni/C ternary composites played a vital role in the effective
electromagnetic absorption properties, which is significant for designing efficient MA materials.

1. Introduction outstanding advantages such as high temperature and corrosion resis­

Recently, accompanying the flourishing progress of miniaturized
electronic devices, wireless communication technologies and digital
systems working at GHz range, highly efficient electromagnetic wave
absorbing and shielding materials have drawn much attention [1–5]. It
has been well recognized that the microwave absorption performance of
materials strongly depend on their dielectric loss factor (tanδE ¼ εr00 /εr0 ),
magnetic loss factor (tanδM ¼ μr00 /μr0 ) and their match degree. The
dielectric loss originates primarily from the conduction loss and polar­
ization relaxation, while the magnetic loss is mainly connected with the
eddy current effect and natural resonance. Therefore, according to their
electromagnetic loss mechanisms, the traditional microwave absorbing
materials can be classified into two types, i.e. the dielectric materials,
such as graphene [6,7], carbon [8,9], SiC [10,11], manganese oxide [12,
13], polyaniline [14,15], and the magnetic materials, including
carbonyl iron [16,17], Fe [18], Co [19], Ni [20], and so on. As a new
microwave absorption material, TiN shows great potential due to its
tance and high conductivity [21,22]. It has been observed that the
magnetic and electromagnetic properties of as-prepared TiN nano­
structures can be influenced not only by modifying the nitridation time,
but also by doping heterogenous elements during the calcining process
[23–26]. However, up to now, the investigation on the enhanced mi­
crowave absorbing properties and energy attenuation mechanism of TiN
is still at its early stage.
To improve the impedance matching behavior and the microwave
attenuation performance of TiN, introducing magnetic components
could be an effective strategy due to the synergistic effect of the
dielectric and magnetic losses. However, further improvement of the
permeability of the absorbers by introduction of the magnetic compo­
nents is quite limited due to their low saturation magnetizations, much
attention has been directed towards the search for effective dielectric
loss. Wei et al. have studied the absorbing property of TiN/Carbon
nanofibers. By optimizing the filler content, the minimum RL and the
effective bandwidth are 41.8 dB and 3.9 GHz with the thickness of 1.9

* Corresponding author. Institute of Functional Polymer Composites, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China.
E-mail address: gong@henu.edu.cn (C. Gong).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2020.108028
Received 5 February 2020; Received in revised form 27 March 2020; Accepted 1 April 2020
Available online 8 April 2020
1359-8368/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Zhang et al.
mm. The effect of the enhanced electrical conductivity could be
considered as a dominating factor for the enhanced dielectric loss [27].
Liu et al. have synthesized the TiN@TiO2 heterostructures. The optimal
RL of TiN@TiO2 nanocomposites can achieve 35.9 dB with an absorber
thickness of 2.0 mm the enhanced microwave absorption of TiN@TiO2
mainly originates from the introduction of heterogeneous interfaces and
the optimized impedance matching [28]. Therefore, the polarization
and conductivity are two important factors determining the absorpting
performance of TiN. However, the comprehensive consideration of the
synergistic effect of polarization and conductivity is extremely urgent.
As a commonly dielectric loss form, according to Debye theory, the
dielectric loss is composed of two parts:
ε’’ ðωÞ ¼ ε’’p þ ε’’c ¼ ðεs ε∞ Þ 1þωτ
ω2 τ 2 þ σ , polarization loss ε’’ and con­
ε0 ω p
duction loss ε’’c . Based on those investigations, besides the composition
strategy, taking full advantage of the structure design could be another
efficient approach to meet the demands of strong microwave absorption
and broad effective bandwidth coverage [29–31]. Therefore, to achieve
the objective of improved microwave absorbing performance, the
structure of an absorber should satisfy two key aspects, i.e. the abundant
heterogeneous interfaces between different components providing suf­
ficient polarization sites and continuous conductive model guaranteeing
the enough conduction loss.
Based on the above design concept, through both composition and
structure design, we expect to prepare the TiN/Ni/C ternary nano­
composites with tunable heterogeneous interface and continuous
conductive matrix as an efficient electromagnetic wave absorbent.
During the in-situ thermal nitridation process, the produced thin carbon
membrane would guarantee the uniform dispersion of TiN and Ni
nanoparticles, which also provide rich heterogeneous interface and
effective interfacial polarization in-between the different components.
As an optimized result, when the atomic molar ratio of Ni:Ti:C is 0.6:1:6,
benefiting from both the significant electromagnetic synergy and
enhanced interfacial polarization, the minimum reflection loss and the
effective absorption bandwidth of the TiN/Ni/C nanocomposites can
reach 35.1 dB and 3.6 GHz with a thickness of 1.7 mm. In comparison
to the traditional composition design strategy, this work provides an
effective structural strategy establishing the abundant interface and
continuous conductive network in microwave absorbing materials,
which is significant for realizing the effective dielectric loss and
designing efficient MA absorbers.
2. Experimental section
Nickel nitrate (Ni(NO3)2⋅6H2O) and Polyacrylamide ((C3H5NO)n,
PAM) were purchased from the Tianjin Kermel Chemical Co., Ltd.
Paraffin (CnH2nþ2) was purchased from Shanghai specimen model fac­
tory. All chemicals in the experiment are analytical reagent and used as
received without further purification. Based on the previous work of our
group, the procedure for preparing the titanic acid (H2Ti2O4(OH)2, NTA)
has been described in detail [26]. The TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites
were prepared using a one-pot thermal nitridation process with nano­
tubular titanic acid as the TiN precursor, PAM as the carbon source, and
Ni(NO3)2⋅6H2O as the nickel source. When preparing the TiN/Ni/C
ternary nanocomposite, firstly, an appropriate amount of Ni
(NO3)2⋅6H2O, NTA and PAM were added in 100 mL of distilled water
under vigorous stirring until a uniform laurel-green viscous liquid was
obtained. Then, the viscous liquid was transferred into a porcelain boat
and dried in an oven at 80 � C to obtain the fluffy precursor. Finally, the
precursor was nitrided in ammonia atmosphere at 900 � C for 4h. During
the simple and easy-controllable in-situ thermal nitridation process, the
reactants were sufficiently dissolved and homogeneous mixed, hence,
the generated TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites structure were much
uniform. The masses of NTA and PAM were fixed as 1.90g and 2.84g,
respectively, and the mass of Ni(NO3)2⋅6H2O was varied from 1.75g to
11.97g to insure the Ni:Ti:C molar ratios (0:1:6, 0.3:1:6, 0.6:1:6, 0.9:1:6,
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Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028
1.2:1:6 and 1.8:1:6) of the reactants. The corresponding TiN/Ni/C
nanocomposites were denoted as S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6, respectively.
The morphology of the as-prepared TiN/Ni/C nanocomposites were
characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM,
JEOL JSM-5600LV; acceleration voltage 20 kV) and a transmission
electron microscope (TEM, JEOL JEM-2010; accelerating voltage 200
kV). A Philips X’Pert Pro X-ray diffractometer (XRD, Cu-Kα radiation, λ
¼ 1.5406 Å) was performed to analyze the crystal structure of the
samples. Raman scattering spectrum was measured using a confocal
microscopic Raman spectrometer (RM-1000, Renishaw) with a 457 nm
laser as the excitation source. The magnetic property of the samples was
measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM, Lake Shore 7400).
The complex permittivity and permeability versus frequency were
measured by a vector network analyzer (Agilent N5230A) based on
coaxial reflection/transmission method in a frequency range of
2.0–18.0 GHz. The specimen is placed inside a portion of an enclosed
cavity of transmission line. The cavity is connected with the vector
network analyzer through cables as shown in Fig. S1 [32–35]. The
permeability and permittivity are calculated through the measurement
of the reflection response and transmission response. The measured
samples were prepared by uniformly mixing 50.0 wt % TiN/Ni/C with
50.0 wt % paraffin matrix and then molded into toroidal samples with
identical inner and outer diameter of 3.04 and 7.00 mm, respectively.
3. Results and discussion
The crystal structures of the as-prepared TiN/Ni/C ternary compos­
ites were determined by XRD and shown in Fig. 1a. All the samples show
five characteristic peaks of face centered cubic TiN (JCPDS card No. 38-
1420), while other three diffraction peaks at 27.4� , 36.1� and 54.3� in
S2-S6 are indexed to cubic Ni (JCPDS card No. 04-0850). Moreover, all
the peak intensities are enhanced monotonically with increase of the
nickel content. When the content of nickel is increased to exceed a
certain extent, as in the cases of S5 and S6, there starts to appear the
weak diffraction peaks of tetragonal rutile TiO2 (JCPDS card No.21-
1276).
The detailed structural information of the TiN/Ni/C ternary nano­
composites was acquired through the measurement of Raman scattering
spectra as shown in Fig. 1b. The D and G peaks at about 1328 cm 1 and
1589 cm 1 directly prove the existing of carbon [36]. Besides, there are
Raman peaks at 152 cm 1, 201 cm 1, 393 cm 1, 512 cm 1 and 627
cm 1 in the TiN/Ni/C samples, which are corresponding to the basic
Raman peaks of anatase TiO2. It should be noted that the Raman scat­
tering signals of anatase TiO2 are very strong and there are some over­
lapped signals between TiN and anatase TiO2. Hence, it is possible that
the signals of TiN are covered up by the stronger scattering signals of
TiO2. Consistent with our previous investigations, though anatase TiO2
in samples S1, S2, S3, and S4 could not be detected by XRD, there is still
some residual O, due to inadequate degree of nitriding [28,37].
The microstructures of the prepared TiN/Ni/C ternary composites
were shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. For S1, it can be observed that the TiN
nanoparticles with the diameter of 10–20 nm were uniformly dispersed
in the carbon matrix. As shown in Fig. 3a, the lattice fringe spacing
collected from the nanoparticle is 0.21 nm, which could be ascribed to
the (200) plane of the cubic TiN [38]. In sample S3, with the increasing
concentration of nickel nitrate in the precursor, a large amount of gas
(NOx) is released from the thermal decomposition of nickel nitrate and
the very thin carbon membrane could be produced under the expansion
effect of released gas. At the same time, both the nickel particles with
size of 100–300 nm and TiN nanoparticles with the diameter of 10–20
nm were distributed uniformly in the continuous and thin carbon matrix
[39]. Here, both the high specific surface and the isolated nanoparticles
could provide more opportunities to interact with the EM wave, thus
leading to significant interfacial polarization effects. Therefore, the
as-prepared model of S3 would satisfy the designing ideas of compre­
hensive consideration for the polarization loss and conduction loss,
Y. Zhang et al. Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028

Fig. 1. XRD patterns (a) and Raman spectra (b) of the TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites obtained with various molar ratios of nickel (S1-S6).

Fig. 2. SEM images of the TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites obtained with various molar ratios of nickel (S1-S6).

Fig. 3. TEM images of TiN/C binary composite S1 (a), and TiN/Ni/C ternary composite S3 (b).

which should be potential structure for microwave absorption. How­ to wrap more nanoparticles. Therefore, the magnetic nickel nano­
ever, with the Ni2þ ions concentration furtherly increased, as in the particles tend to agglomerate due to the lack of isolation of the contin­
cases of S4, the too thin carbon membrane bursted partly, which failed uous carbon film, S5 and S6 further proved the tendency. The schematic

3
Y. Zhang et al.
illustration of formation for TiN/Ni/C ternary composites was provided
in Fig. S2.
The room temperature magnetization hysteresis loops (M–H) of the
composites (S1-S6) are shown in Fig. 4. It could be found that all the
TiN/Ni/C ternary composites exhibit a typical ferromagnetic behavior
stemming from the magnetic Ni nanoparticles. Evidently, the saturation
magnetization (Ms) values of the TiN/Ni/C ternary composites increased
gradually along with the raised Ni content.
To investigate the EM properties, the complex permittivity and
permeability of TiN/Ni/C paraffin composites were compared and
shown in Fig. 5. Three specimens were tested for each sample to reduce
error. Compared with composite S1, the dielectric loss values of S2 and
S3 are obviously enhanced due to the introduction of Ni nanoparticles.
The embedded TiN and Ni particles in the carbon matrix would intro­
duce additional heterogeneous interface. Especially for S3, shows the
minimum dielectric loss due to the enhanced interfacial polarization
[40]. However, with further increase of Ni, there is distinct drops of both
ε0 and ε00 in S4, which may ascribe to the overinflated and then cracked
carbon matrix resulting in the sharp drop of conduction loss. S5-S6
further verified the decreased permittivity which almost kept constant
(ε0 � 6-7, ε00 � 0.1–0.25) throughout the whole frequency range indi­
cating the poor dielectric loss. Meanwhile, it is observed from Fig. 5d–f
that the values of imaginary part of permeability and magnetic loss
tangent increase with the increased Ni content. Furthermore, with the
increase of frequency, the complex permeability and magnetic loss of the
samples decreased, which is probably related to the eddy current
induced by the alternating current field [41].
As well known that the permittivity is related with polarization and
conductivity [42–45]. In this work, from S1 to S3, the carbon matrix
coated on the TiN and Ni nanoparticles tends to thinner and more
extensive. Benefit from the effective structure design, the achieved very
thin carbon matrix in S3 would profit multiaspect, which would estab­
lish the maximized effective specific area and fabricate abundant
interface polarization. In the meantime, the continuous carbon matrix
would contribute to promoting the conductivity. Therefore, the com­
bined effects of both the interface polarization and conduction loss
would simultaneously act on the enhanced dielectric loss performance.
Obviously, it is not far to seek that the dramatic decrease of both the
permittivity and dielectric loss in S4 should be attributable to the
cracked carbon membrane. The collapsed construction of carbon is
incapable to clad magnetic nanoparticles, nor can it maintain the
appropriate conductivity. Hence, the polarization as well as the dielec­
tric properties are deteriorated in S4-S6.
Commonly, the Debye dipolar relaxation is supposed as an important
Fig. 4. Hysteresis loops of the TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites obtained with
various molar ratios of nickel (S1-S6) in a range of 10 kOe < H < 10 kOe at
room temperature.
4
Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028
dissipative mechanism in association with the dielectric loss, and the
relationship between ε0 and ε00 can be expressed as,
� 0 ε þε � �ε ε∞ �2
(1)
s ∞ s
ε þ ðε00 Þ2 ¼
2 2
where, εs is the static permittivity and ε∞ is the relative dielectric
permittivity at the high-frequency limit. It is well known that a single
semicircle of the curve ε00 versus ε0 can be regarded as one Cole-Cole
hemicycle which corresponds to the Debye relaxation process [46,47].
From the Cole-Cole curves in Fig. 6, it is observed that there are several
semicircles in all the composites, which indicates the appearance of the
multiple relaxation processes. It deserves to be mentioned that there is
not only polarization relaxation but also synergistic effect of conduction
loss in the samples S1-S3 [48], which is in line with the dielectric and
morphology characteristics. However, when the continuous conductive
carbon matrix was destroyed in S4-S6, the characteristics of the con­
ductivity loss also along with it vanishing, which further verify that the
effective structural design with tunable heterogeneous interfaces is great
potential for the regulation of conductivity and dielectric properties.
Generally, the magnetic loss is mainly from the eddy current effect
along with the natural and exchange resonance. The C0 can be expressed
as [49,50]:
(2)
0
C0 ¼ μ00 ðμ Þ 2 f 1
Base on this equation, it can be concluded that if the magnetic loss
originates from the eddy current effect, the curve of C0 versus ƒ should
be a straight line in the frequency range. The C0-ƒ curves of the com­
posites are shown in Fig. 6. The C0 value of S1 is almost constant, which
implies that the magnetic loss of the TiN/C binary composite is mainly
caused by the eddy current effect. As expected, with the formation of the
magnetic Ni particles, the natural resonance and eddy current effect
would work together on the magnetic loss in the composites S2-S6 with
the obviously fluctuant C0 curves.
The reflection loss value can be calculated using the relative complex
permeability and permittivity at a given frequency and absorber thick­
ness according to the transmit line theory, which is summarized as the
following equations:
rffiffiffiffi �� � �
Zin ¼ Z0
μr
tanh j
2πfd pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
μr ε r (3)
εr c
� �
�Zin Z0 �
RL ¼ 20lg�� � (4)
Zin þ Z0 �
Z0 ¼ ðμ0 =ε0 Þ1=2 (5)
where, Zo is the characteristic impedance of free space, Zin is the input
impedance of the free space, f is the frequency of the electromagnetic
wave, d is the thickness of the materials, c is the velocity of the elec­
tromagnetic wave in free space, and μr and εr are the relative complex
permeability and permittivity, respectively.
The RL values were calculated and shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. S3. It is
obvious that S1-S3 have superior performance than S4-S6. Especially,
for S3, the minimum RL reaches 35.1 dB at 12.4 GHz and the effective
absorption bandwidth is 3.6 GHz from 10.8 GHz to 14.4 GHz with a
thickness of 1.7 mm. The RL for the TiN/Ni/C-paraffin composites with
the thickness of 1.7 mm were shown in Fig. S4, it is obvious that S3
shows the superior microwave absorption properties. The effectively
isolated TiN and Ni particles and increased heterogeneous interface may
contribute to enhancing the interface polarization effects. At the same
time, the extended and thin carbon matrix would help to get proper
conductive network. Therefore, the effective microwave absorption of
S3 provides further justification for the superiority of the design view­
point insuring the heterogeneous interfaces and continuously con­
ducting matrix. The combined multi-absorbing mechanisms of S3 make
it feasible to acquire improved microwave absorption property.
Y. Zhang et al. Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028

Fig. 5. Frequency dependence of complex permittivity, complex permeability and loss tangent of the TiN/Ni/C-paraffin composites.

Fig. 6. Cole-Cole curves (at the top-right corner) and C0 curves of the TiN/Ni/C-paraffin composites.

However, the RL for S4-S6 becomes deteriorated and can hardly reach which is evaluated by the value of delta function and expressed by
5.0 dB in whole thickness range of 1.0–5.0 mm, which can be attrib­ formulas (6)-(8) [50]:
uted to the cracked carbon layer and weakened conductivity. The � �
jΔj ¼ �sinh2 ðKfdÞ M � (6)
respective contribution of conduction loss and polarization loss are
fitted by non-linear square fitting method and shown in Fig. S5. It can be
where, the values of K and M can be calculated by μ’ and ε’ as following,
observed that the contribution of the conduction loss is higher than that
� �
of polarization loss due to the high conductivity of TiN/Ni/C nano­ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
sin δe þδm
� 4 π μ’ ε ’
composites. S3 shows the highest values of both conduction loss and K¼
2
(7)
polarization loss, which contribute to the optimal absorbing perfor­ c � cosδe � cosδm
mance. Compared with the prior related works as shown in Table S1, the
optimal RL of unit thickness for TiN/Ni/C ternary composite can ranch
ε’ cosδm � 4μ’ cosδe
M¼ h � � i2 (8)
22.46 dB/mm, which shows the preferable EM wave-absorbing capa­ ðμ’ cosδe ε’ cosδm Þ2 þ tan δm δe
2
� ðμ’ cosδe þ ε’ cosδm Þ2
bility with overall consideration of thickness, minimum reflection loss
and effective bandwidth. It is evident from Fig. S6 that S1-S3 possess the larger favorable area
To minimize the reflection at the surface of the wave absorbing (|Δ| < 0.4) compared with S4-S6, which is consistent with the result of
material, the impedance matching degree should be mainly considered, the reflection loss. However, It is worth mentioning that although S3

5
Y. Zhang et al. Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028

Fig. 7. Frequency dependence of the RL for the TiN/Ni/C-paraffin composites.

shows the best absorbing performance, the delta area (|Δ| < 0.4) of S3 is
not the largest. This is due to the fact that there are two key influencing
factors should be taken into consideration to discuss the performance of
an EM absorbent. One is the impedance matching degree, which allows
electromagnetic wave to enter the interior of material [51–53]. The
other is the ability of energy conservation, which represents the dissi­
pation capacity to convert the electromagnetic waves into other forms of
energy. The dissipation capability can be studied according to the
attenuation constant α, which can be expressed based on the trans­
mission line theory [50]:
pffiffi rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiq
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
α¼
2
πf ðε00 μ00 ε0 μ0 Þ þ ðε00 μ00 ε0 μ0 Þ2 þ ðε00 μ0 þ ε0 μ00 Þ2 (9)
c
The calculated attenuation constant α is shown in Fig. 8. It is obvious
that S3 possesses the largest attenuation constant in accordance with the
reflection loss, which further confirm the reasonable structural design of
S3 with tunable heterogeneous interfaces and conductivity would ach­
ieve outstanding attenuation capability for the incident electromagnetic
wave.
Moreover, the microwave absorption mechanism of optimized S3

Fig. 8. Schematic illustration of microwave absorption mechanisms of TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites.

6
Y. Zhang et al.
was illustrated schematically in Fig. 8. The superior structure design
with sufficient heterogeneous interface plays a decisive role in the mi­
crowave absorption. Firstly, the thin carbon medium is not only helpful
to prevent nickel nanoparticles from oxidation and corrosion, but also
regulate the heterogeneous interface structure and the electrical con­
ductivity of the composites. The heterogeneous interface between
different components can introduce additional interfacial polarization,
charge polarization and dielectric relaxation in the ternary composites.
Secondly, the appropriate content of the magnetic Ni particles can
further optimize the electromagnetic matching, at the same time, the
dispersed TiN and Ni particles provide opportunities for multiple
reflection and repeated electromagnetic energy dissipation. Thirdly, the
eddy current effect in the TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites also con­
tributes to the energy dissipation of microwave. As a result, the syner­
gistic effects of the multiple loss mechanisms enhance the microwave
absorption capability of the TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposite. There­
fore, the effective structure design with thin carbon membrane coated
absorbtion particles to construct the tunable heterogeneous interface
and continuous conducting matrix is the significance route to guarantee
full utilization of electric and dielectric loss mechanisms and achieve
ideal absorbing performance.
4. Conclusions
The TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites with tunable heterogeneous
interface and continuously conducting matrix were fabricated by a
simple and effective thermal nitridation process. The structures and
microwave absorbing properties of the composites were regulated
effectively through adjust the relative amount of reactants in precursor.
When the atomic molar ratio of Ni:Ti:C is optimized as 0.6:1:6 (Sample
S3), the TiN and Ni absorbing nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed and
embedded in the thin carbon matrix, which produce rich interfacial
polarization and provide more chances for the electromagnetic wave to
interact with the absorbers. Meanwhile, the continuous carbon mem­
brane would guarantee the befitting conductivity. The synergistic effect
of interfacial polarization and the eddy current effect could make a
combined contribution to the excellent microwave absorption property
of the TiN/Ni/C ternary nanocomposites. Due to the desired electro­
magnetic impedance matching and attenuation capacity, for sample S3,
the optimized reflection loss of 35.1 dB can be obtained with an
absorber thickness of 1.7 mm. The designed ternary nanocomposite
structure with rich heterogeneous interface could be an ideal design for
fabricating high performance microwave absorbers with broad appli­
cation prospects.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yahong Zhang: Formal analysis, Validation, Writing - original draft.
Hongjie Meng: Resources, Investigation, Validation, Methodology,
Data curation. Yupeng Shi: Investigation, Methodology, Data curation,
Validation. Xuefeng Zhang: Validation, Writing - review & editing.
Caixia Liu: Investigation, Resources. Yu Wang: Investigation, Re­
sources. Chunhong Gong: Supervision, Methodology, Funding acqui­
sition, Project administration. Jingwei Zhang: Conceptualization,
Project administration.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (grant Nos. U1704253 and 21671057), Kaifeng
7
Composites Part B 193 (2020) 108028
Science and Technology Plan Project (1801005), China Postdoctoral
Science Foundation (2019M652524).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2020.108028.
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