Abstract

Metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived composites on the microwave absorption have received extensive attention. However, which kind of organic ligand corresponding MOF derivative has better electromagnetic wave absorption performance is an urgent problem to be solved. In this work, two kinds of Ni@C derived from the Ni-based MOFs with two kinds of organic ligands (dimethylimidazole as a ligand named as Ni-ZIF and trimesic acid as a ligand named as Ni-BTC) were successfully obtained. The compositions, morphologies, and electromagnetic properties of two composites were well controlled. As a result, both kinds of Ni@C exhibited the good microwave absorption properties. Comparatively speaking, the Ni@C derived from Ni-ZIF performs better. The Ni@C-ZIF microspheres with a 40% mass filling ratio exhibited a strong reflection loss of −86.8 dB at 13.2 GHz when the matching thickness was 2.7 mm, and the corresponding effective absorption bandwidth was 7.4 GHz (4–11.4 GHz) with the thickness ranging from 1.5 to 4.0 mm. The impedance matching, multiple reflection, and interfacial polarization among Ni and C were beneficial to the enhancement of microwave attenuation, which N-doping introduced by nitrogen-containing ligands leads to excellent microwave absorption properties. Therefore, this work can give insights into understanding the absorbing mechanism as well as provide a simple and flexible paradigm for the design and synthesis of the absorber with the tunable and high-efficiency performances.