Abundant vacancies induced high polarization-attenuation effects in flower-like WS₂ microwave absorbers

Defect engineering could provide new ideas for the design of transition metal disulfide electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbers with high performance. Since the effects of dipoles on impedance matching and EMW absorption are crucial for the development of novel absorbers, the polarization attenuation dependence on defect engineering should be understood at micro- and macro-scales. In this paper, it is found that the defect-rich WS₂ nanoflowers synthesized by the cold plasma method possess excellent EMW absorption properties. Cold plasma treatment of materials is easy to perform and maintains the original shape of the material to a high degree. The formation of defects results in abundant electrochemically active sites, increased multiple reflection losses, improved dielectric properties and impedance matching in the materials. The RL_min of the defect-rich material with a thickness of 3.19 mm is as high as −54.36 dB at 8.16 GHz, and the effective absorption bandwidth is 4.72 GHz. The results reveal that the formation of defective vacancies enhances the effects of dipole polarization of the material on improving its EMW absorption properties. Thus, this work provides not only a facile preparation route for novel EMW-absorbing materials, but also a new strategy for tunning defects in transition metal disulfides.