Deconstruction and integration: From nanofillers to lightweight and broadband electromagnetic absorbers

With the global application of electronic information technology, protection of human body and special equipment from the interference of electromagnetic radiations is pressingly needed, which necessitates the development of lightweight and broadband electromagnetic absorber (EMA) materials in recent decades. Apart from the polymer matrix, EMA materials mainly rely on nanofillers that play an important role in EM absorption and reflection due to their desirable lightweight, nanostructure, and outstanding EM-related characteristics. In this review, we summarize the physicochemical properties and EM interference performance of recently investigated nanofillers. These nanofillers are versatile in terms of the composition, crystal structure, and morphology. In general practice, two or more nanofillers are properly combined as a 3-dimensional hierarchical hybrid in an effective EMA material. The review has summed up the basic influences of nanofiller's composition, morphology and structure as well as their combination style on the electromagnetic absorption performance. Based on the review, we propose an integrated strategy to construct next generation broadband EMA materials to overcome the limitations in current integration of nanofillers.