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Hao et al. Soft Sci. 2025, 5, 39 Soft Science
DOI: 10.20517/ss.2025.48

Review Article Open Access

Design of mesoscopic metacomposites for

electromagnetic wave absorption: enhancing
performance and gaining mechanistic insights

1,2
1,2
2
1,2
1,2
1,2
Bo Hao , Ze-Hui Chai , Mu Li , Jia-Jing Duan , Yi Zhang , Yi-Bo Zhang 1,2,* , Cui-Ping Li , Chun-Hong
Gong 1,2,*
1
Institute of Functional Polymer Composites, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004,
Henan, China.
2
National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Applied Technology of Hybrid Nanomaterials, Henan University, Kaifeng
475004, Henan, China.
* Correspondence to: Dr. Yi-Bo Zhang, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Henan University, Jinming Avenue,
Longting District, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, China. E-mail: zhangyibo@henu.edu.cn; Prof. Chun-Hong Gong, College of Chemistry
and Molecular Sciences, Henan University, Jinming Avenue, Longting District, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, China. E-mail:
gong@henu.edu.cn
How to cite this article: Hao, B.; Chai, Z. H.; Li, M.; Duan, J. J.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y. B.; Li, C. P.; Gong, C. H. Design of mesoscopic
metacomposites for electromagnetic wave absorption: enhancing performance and gaining mechanistic insights. Soft Sci. 2025, 5
, 39. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ss.2025.48

Received: 4 Jul 2025 First Decision: 23 Jul 2025 Revised: 29 Jul 2025 Accepted: 18 Aug 2025 Published: 22 Aug 2025
Academic Editors: Guanglei Wu, YongAn Huang Copy Editor: Shu-Yuan Duan Production Editor: Shu-Yuan Duan

Abstract
The increasing issue of electromagnetic pollution necessitates the development of high-efficiency microwave
absorbing materials. Traditional composites present challenges due to temperature sensitivity, complicating
impedance matching and loss capabilities across varying temperatures. Rather than concentrating on the micro-
scale structures and components typical in traditional design strategies, mesoscopic metacomposites have
garnered significant attention due to their capacity to enhance microwave absorption and impedance matching
through a discrete distribution of subwavelength-scale functional units in the composites. This review focuses on
the applications of mesoscopic metacomposites in improving microwave absorbing performance. The discrete
arrangement of subwavelength units improves anti-reflection effects and provides significant intrinsic loss
capacity, enabling strong attenuation and effective impedance matching. Additionally, mesoscopic
metacomposites facilitate controlled reflection and scattering of electromagnetic waves by carefully designing
conductivity, dimensions, and spatial configurations. This presents groundbreaking methods for the further
enhancement of microwave absorption efficacy. This review aspires to illuminate the pathway toward the
development of thin, lightweight, highly efficient microwave absorbing materials with broadband absorption

© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
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