Transition/rare earth metal co-modified SiC for low-frequency and high-temperature electromagnetic response

The rapid development of wireless communication technology and the widespread deployment of electronic devices have led to an unprecedented surge in electromagnetic pollution, especially in the low-frequency paradigm (S band: 2-4 GHz, C band: 4-8 GHz), which include critical communication bands such as 5G, Wi-Fi, and radar systems. In this frequency range, effective electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption is critical for mitigating electromagnetic interference and enhancing stealth capabilities in military and civil applications, especially in the n77 (3.3-4.2 GHz), n78 (3.3-3.8 GHz), and n79 (4.4-5.0 GHz) operating bands dedicated to 5G communications. On the other hand, in the aerospace field, the key to breakthroughs in radar stealth technology for high-speed vehicles and aero-engines lies in the development of high-temperature (≥500 °C) EMW absorption materials. However, the existing EMW absorption material systems face obvious technical bottlenecks in low-frequency high-temperature application scenarios. For example, traditional dielectric absorbers (carbon-based materials) are constrained by poor impedance matching and insufficient low-frequency loss mechanisms, while magnetic absorbers (ferrite and metal alloys) suffer from inherent defects such as high density, limited Curie temperature, and easy oxidation at high-temperatures. Therefore, it is urgent to develop high-temperature resistant EMW absorption materials with low-frequency response.

Recently, a team of material scientists led by Xiaojun Zeng from Jingdezhen Ceramic University, China reported a SiC-based composite for EMW absorption achieved by co-confining transition metal Co and rare earth metal Ce into SiC matrix. Among them, the reflection loss (RL) of SiC/CoSi/CeSi at low-frequency of 3.65 GHz is -66.48 dB, which is 14 times higher than that of pure SiC and shows competitive performance with previous work on SiC-based absorbers. Notably, the SiC/CoSi/CeSi composite demonstrate negligible absorption efficiency decay after high-temperature oxidation at 500 °C, exhibiting no observable changes in its structure and composition. The experimental results show that the good thermal stability of SiC, CoSi, and CeSi promotes the intended high-temperature stability of the composite. Mechanistic analysis shows that the excellent EMW absorption performance of SiC/CoSi/CeSi composite can be attributed to the porous structure promoting multiple reflections and scattering, the 3D conductive network promoting conduction loss, the rich components promoting interface polarization brought by the heterogeneous interface, and the 4f electrons of Ce contributing to the local magnetic moments and the paramagnetic CoSi synergistically promoting magnetic loss.

The team published their work in Journal of Advanced Ceramics on August 28, 2025.

“In this report, we proposes a transition metal-rare earth co-modification strategy, combining atomic-scale electronic structure regulation with microscale heterointerface engineering, effectively overcoming the bottleneck of low-frequency and high-temperature response of traditional SiC-based absorbers，”said Dr. Xiaojun Zeng, the corresponding author of the paper, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.

“The ternary composite (SiC/CoSi/CeSi) achieves an impressive RL value of -66.48 dB at 3.65 GHz, while maintaining 94.5% of its absorption performance (-63.34 dB at 4.31 GHz) even after oxidation at 500 °C.” said Xiaojun Zeng.

This work was supported by Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 20244BAB28050, 20224BAB214021), the Major Research Program of Jingdezhen Ceramic Industry (No. 2023ZDGG002), the Graduate Innovation Fund of Jiangxi Province (YC2025-S728).

About Author

Xiaojun Zeng is currently a professor of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic University. He is a postdoctoral fellow of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) under the supervision of Prof. Galen D. Stucky. He obtained his Ph. D. degree in Materials Physics and Chemistry from Beihang University (BUAA) in2019. From 2017 to 2019, he carried out research under the supervision of Prof. Yadong Yin at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). His current research interests focus on the development of advanced nanomaterials for electromagnetic functional materials and energy catalytic materials.

He also serves as editorial board member of SCI journal J. Adv. Ceram., youth editorial board member of Rare Metals, Prog. Nat. Sci., J. Adv. Dielectr. and Journal of Inorganic Materials, youth editorial board member of ESCI journal Adv. Powder Material., Energy Materials, Carbon Neutralization, Soft Sci. and Chain, youth editorial board member of EI journal of China University of Petroleum (Natural Science Journal), youth editorial board member of Chinese core journal Ceramics Journal, deputy director editorial board member of journal Materials Research and Application, Editorial board of Modern Technical Ceramics and Journal of Liaocheng University (Natural Science Edition), director of Enamel Branch of China Silicate Society, director of Expert Committee of China Photoelectric Material Device Network, member of Electromagnetic Composite Materials Branch of China Composite Materials Society, member of Building Sanitary Ceramics Professional Committee of China Silicate Society. He successively presided over major key projects of ceramic industry of National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province and Jingdezhen City. In recent years, he has published more than 90 papers as the first/corresponding author, including more than 80 SCI papers, with a total citation of more than 4700 times.

About Journal of Advanced Ceramics

Journal of Advanced Ceramics (JAC) is an international academic journal that presents the state-of-the-art results of theoretical and experimental studies on the processing, structure, and properties of advanced ceramics and ceramic-based composites. JAC is Fully Open Access, monthly published by Tsinghua University Press, and exclusively available via SciOpen. JAC’s 2024 IF is 16.6, ranking in Top 1 (1/33, Q1) among all journals in “Materials Science, Ceramics” category, and its 2024 CiteScore is 25.9 (5/130) in Scopus database. ResearchGate homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Journal-of-Advanced-Ceramics-2227-8508