The explosive growth of electronic and communication devices has led to severe electromagnetic pollution, which not only endangers human health but also disrupts the normal operation of military and civilian electronic systems, creating an urgent demand for high-performance, lightweight microwave absorption materials. Traditional absorbers such as magnetic ferrites and carbon-based materials suffer from bottlenecks like high density, poor impedance matching, and narrow absorption bandwidth, limiting their practical applications.
To address these challenges, researchers pioneered the integration of natural diatom biochar—a 3D biological template with an intrinsic resonant cavity structure—with ZIF-67, a metal-organic framework (MOF) with tunable porosity. By engineering a dual-templating effect, the natural 3D resonant cavities of diatoms and secondary pore channels from ZIF-67 decomposition collaboratively realize stepwise impedance matching, a key factor for efficient microwave absorption. During controlled pyrolysis, the formed Co-C/SiO₂ heterointerfaces induce strong interfacial polarization, while cobalt nanoparticles embedded in conductive carbon shells form magneto-dielectric coupling units, enabling multi-mechanism microwave dissipation.
This work provides a green pathway for multi-band compatible stealth technology, by customizing the hierarchical pore structure of biological templates to develop lightweight microwave stealth materials. The work titled “Intrinsic Diatom Resonators Enable Enhanced Microwave Absorption via Engineered Hierarchical Porosity” was published in Advanced Powder Materials (Available online on 3 March 2026).
DOI：10.1016/j.apmate.2026.100411