Integrating Sulfur Doping with a Multi-Heterointerface Fe₇S₈/NiS@C Composite for Wideband Microwave Absorption

Heterointerface engineering is presently considered a valuable strategy for enhancing the microwave absorption (MA) properties of materials via compositional modification and structural design. In this study, a sulfur-doped multi-interfacial composite (Fe₇S₈/NiS@C) coated with NiFe-layered double hydroxides (LDHs) is successfully prepared using a hydrothermal method and post-high-temperature vulcanization. When assembled into twisted surfaces, the NiFe-LDH nanosheets exhibit porous morphologies, improving impedance matching, and microwave scattering. Sulfur doping in composites generates heterointerfaces, numerous sulfur vacancies, and lattice defects, which facilitate the polarization process to enhance MA. Owing to the controllable heterointerface design, the unique porous structure induced multiple heterointerfaces, numerous vacancies, and defects, endowing the Fe₇S₈/NiS@C composite with an enhanced MA capability. In particular, the minimum reflection loss (RL_min) value reached -58.1 dB at 15.8 GHz at a thickness of 2.1 mm, and a broad effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) value of 7.3 GHz is achieved at 2.5 mm. Therefore, the Fe₇S₈/NiS@C composite exhibits remarkable potential as a high-efficiency MA material owing to the synergistic effects of the polarization processes, multiple scatterings, porous structures, and impedance matching.