Bioinspired ZIF-derived carbon architectures for corrosion-resistant broadband electromagnetic attenuation

Electromagnetic absorbers operating in marine environments face an intrinsic materials dilemma: efficient electromagnetic attenuation requires wave-accessible, impedance-matched transport pathways, whereas durable corrosion protection demands compact ion-blocking barriers. Herein, a bioinspired zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-derived carbon architecture with a neuron-like cell body–dendrite topology is engineered to couple electromagnetic energy dissipation with corrosion resistance. Fe-regulated catalytic growth induces the directional formation of conductive carbon nanotube dendrites on carbon spheres serving as cell bodies, while ZnO separation and carbon-encapsulated metal carbides generate abundant heterogeneous interfaces. This hierarchical architecture establishes a cascaded capture–channeling–dissipation pathway, in which dendritic networks capture and transport incident electromagnetic waves, whereas defect-rich carbon cell bodies and ZnO/metal carbide/carbon interfaces enhance interfacial polarization and dielectric relaxation loss. As a result, the optimized absorber delivers a minimum reflection loss of −62.98 dB, and the neuron-inspired architecture containing separated ZnO domains achieves a broad effective absorption bandwidth of 5.84 GHz. A simulation-guided gradient multilayer configuration predicts an expanded bandwidth of 14.21 GHz, covering the C-, X-, and Ku-bands. In corrosive media, the neuron-inspired architecture forms multilevel barriers through ZnO passivation, carbide encapsulation, and tortuous diffusion pathways, enabling more than 90% retention of electromagnetic attenuation after 30 days of simulated marine exposure. This work proposes bioinspired topological engineering as an effective strategy for designing durable, corrosion-resistant electromagnetic attenuation materials in harsh environments.