Microwave-absorbing materials play a significant role in various applications that involve the attenuation of electromagnetic radiation. This critical review article provides an overview of the progress made in the development and understanding of microwave-absorbing materials. The interaction between electromagnetic radiation and absorbing materials is explained, with a focus on phenomena such as multiple reflections, scattering, and polarizations. Additionally, types of losses that affect the performance of microwave absorbers are also discussed, including dielectric loss, conduction loss, relaxation loss, magnetic loss, and morphological loss. Each of these losses has different implications for the effectiveness of microwave absorbers. Further, a detailed review is presented on various types of microwave absorbing materials, including carbonaceous materials, conducting polymers, magnetic materials, metals and their composites, 2D materials (such as MXenes and 2D-transition metal dichalcogenides), biomass-derived materials, carbides, sulphides, phosphides, high entropy (HE) materials and metamaterials. The characteristics, advantages, and limitations of each material are examined. Overall, this review article highlights the progress achieved in the field of microwave-absorbing materials. It underlines the importance of optimizing different types of losses to enhance the performance of microwave absorbers. The review also recognizes the potential of emerging materials, such as 2D materials and high entropy materials, in further advancing microwave-absorbing properties.

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微波吸收材料的进展：批判性评论

微波吸收材料在涉及电磁辐射衰减的各种应用中发挥着重要作用。这篇评论文章概述了微波吸收材料的开发和理解方面取得的进展。解释了电磁辐射和吸收材料之间的相互作用，重点是多次反射、散射和偏振等现象。此外，还讨论了影响微波吸收体性能的损耗类型，包括介电损耗、传导损耗、弛豫损耗、磁损耗和形态损耗。这些损失中的每一个对微波吸收器的有效性都有不同的影响。此外，还对各种类型的微波吸收材料进行了详细的综述，包括碳质材料、导电聚合物、磁性材料、金属及其复合材料、二维材料（如MXenes和二维过渡金属二硫化物）、生物质材料、碳化物、硫化物、磷化物、高熵 (HE) 材料和超材料。研究了每种材料的特性、优点和局限性。总的来说，这篇综述文章重点介绍了微波吸收材料领域取得的进展。它强调了优化不同类型的损耗以提高微波吸收器性能的重要性。该评论还认识到二维材料和高熵材料等新兴材料在进一步提高微波吸收性能方面的潜力。