High-permittivity Sb2S3 single-crystal nanorods as a brand-new choice for electromagnetic wave absorption

The application of antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) has been limited mainly to the energy storage and photoelectric conversion fields. However, in this work, the application of Sb2S3 is extended to the field of electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption for the first time. High-permittivity Sb2S3 single-crystal nanorods were prepared successfully and exhibited excellent performance, with a low reflection loss of -65.9 dB (13.0 GHz, 3.8 mm) and an ultra-wide effective absorption bandwidth of 9.5 GHz (8.5-18.0 GHz, 4.1 mm). After excluding the general absorption mechanisms, including conductive losses, interfacial polarization, and dipole polarization, the distinctive single-crystal volume polarization affected by shape anisotropy was proposed. This work not only meets the challenge of a single-component dielectric material design but also introduces a new concept for construction of efficient dielectric EM wave absorption material.