Electromagnetic absorption materials have gained increasing attention. In this study, we report NiO decorated biomass porous carbon derived from pine nut shells as a promising microwave absorbing material by a facile strategy. The NiO/biomass porous carbon (BPC) is thermally converted from Ni(OH)₂/BPC with BPC as the base for precipitation. All products were characterized by XRD, Raman, and SEM techniques, which reveals that the NiO nanoflakes were uniformly self-assembled on the surface of the activated carbon. Compared with counterparts of pure Ni(OH)₂ and Ni(OH)₂/BPC, a large reflection loss peak of −33.8 dB at 16.4 GHz is achieved for the NiO/BPC composites, and the absorption bandwidth less than −10 dB can reach up to about 6.7 GHz (from 11.3 to 18.0 GHz) with a thickness of 8 mm. The enhanced microwave absorption properties originate from the electric/dielectric polarization and the unique NiO decorated BPC structures. The expanded interfaces, such as NiO–NiO, Ni–BPC and NiO–paraffin interfaces in the complicated porous composites, could boost the interfacial polarization as well as related relaxation which results in enhanced dielectric loss and electromagnetic absorbing properties. In addition, NiO/BPC nanocomposites exhibit comparatively better matching of permittivity and permeability. It is expected that our present investigation could provide a new possibility for biomass based fabrication of potential microwave absorbing materials.

We demonstrate the design and fabrication of novel Cu ₂ O@Mn(OH) ₂ core–shell hierarchical structures using octahedral Cu ₂ O as a template.

Designing sensing materials with integrating unique spatial structures, functional units, and surface activity is vital to achieve high‐performance gas sensor toward triethylamine (TEA) detection. Herein, a simple spontaneous dissolution is used with subsequent thermal decomposition strategy to fabricate mesoporousized ZnO holey cubes. The squaric acid is crucial to coordinate Zn²⁺ to form a cubic shape (ZnO‐0) and then tailor the inner part to open a holey cube with simultaneously mesoporousizing the left cubic body (ZnO‐72). To enhance the sensing performance, the mesoporous ZnO holey cubes have been functionalized with catalytic Pt nanoparticles, which deliver superior performances including high response, low detection limit, and fast response and recovery time. Notably, the response of Pt/ZnO‐72 towards 200 ppm TEA is up to 535, which is much higher than those of 43 and 224 for pristine ZnO‐0 and ZnO‐72. A synergistic mechanism combining the intrinsic merits of ZnO, its unique mesoporous holey cubic structure, the oxygen vacancies, and the catalytic sensitization effect of Pt has been proposed for the significant enhancement in TEA sensing. Our work provides an effective facile approach to fabricate an advanced micro‐nano architecture with manipulating its spatial structure, functional units, and active mesoporous surface for promising TEA gas sensors.