In recent years, the rapid advancement of modern technologies has become evident. Undoubtedly, the emergence of the 5G network has significantly enhanced our everyday lives, providing a sense of luxury [[1], [2], [3]]. Almost every field, such as communication networks, biomedical applications, automobiles, radar systems, and more, extensively relies on the utilization of electromagnetic (EM) waves [4], as shown in Fig. 1. While these applications of EM waves are indeed captivating, they are also encountering significant challenges due to their excessive usage.

With the advancement in technology, the trend of innovative wearable electronic devices with multiple functions like health monitoring [5], motion sensing [6,7], thermal management [8] and so on is rising steadily. Such features have made our lives very comfortable but as a consequence, it is also affecting the health of human beings and the environment through the heating or non-heating effects of EM waves. Electromagnetic pollution is raising day by day which has become a serious issue that needs our immediate attention. The EM waves interfere with the communication networks and electronic systems whose results can be seen as hindrances in communication and the smooth working of electronic systems [9]. Not only that these EM radiations are also affecting the human body. Consequent results are cancer cell development, affecting the body's immunity and altering the DNA system [10,11]. As a result, developing novel efficient Electromagnetic microwave absorbing materials (MAMs) is becoming a hot topic of study to confine the harmful effect of EM waves. Developing a multifunctional Electromagnetic wave absorber for EM shielding is quite a difficult task because a material alone cannot have multiple features which makes this task very complex. However, the problem can be solved by tailoring the material design in multi-layer form at the nano or micro level resulting in multifunctional properties, which is one of the current active areas of research in the development of EM wave absorbers [[12], [13], [14]]. Many researchers have published their work on conducting polymers, metals and metal compounds and cellulose-derived carbon fibers based flexible wearable composite with combining in-situ polymerization, doping of 0D Ferro ferric oxide nanoparticles, 1D AgNWs and 2D materials which showed excellent results in EM shielding applications [[15], [16], [17], [18], [19]].

Apart from these issues, the technology of stealth has long been a fascination amongst scientists and engineers. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the environment around us. However, developing highly efficient novel multi-functional electromagnetic microwave absorbing materials for use in multi-band stealth and aviation technology [20] has proved challenging. With advancements in detection technology of military weapons, materials which show stealth properties in a particular frequency band have become quite ineffective [21] due to which many research groups are working on multi-frequency band materials showing visible, infrared and radar stealth performances by tailoring the materials properties [22,23]. Usually, a material which absorbs the radar signal is treated as a good option for radar stealth applications [24,25] but for infrared stealth, the heat difference between material substrate and environment needs to be minimized at a high-temperature range of operation [19,26]. Many research work claims that biomass-derived chitosan-based fiber aerogels and their composites are promising materials for infrared-radar stealth due to their low density and high porous nature [[27], [28], [29]]. Some recent work has been published on phase change materials (PCMs) which show excellent infrared stealth properties during phase transition region by absorbing and releasing thermal energy [[30], [31], [32]]. PCMs and their composite with hybrid aerogel doped with metal oxides and sulphides have also been studied by some research groups which shows good radar-infrared stealth [[33], [34], [35], [36]]. Recently Leilei Liang et al. [37] have published a research article in which they have fabricated a multispectral mechano-optical system inspired from cephalopod skins which can operate in visible to microwave frequency bands. The system consists of two two-layer structures in which silver nanowires (AgNWs) were used as the rigid surface while acrylic dielectric elastomer (ADE) was used as the soft layer.

Many review articles have been published on various materials like carbonaceous materials, conducting polymers, magnetic materials, metals and their composites, 2D materials, biomass-derived materials, carbides, sulphides, phosphides, and high entropy (HE) materials in which Electromagnetic microwave absorption properties have been thoroughly investigated [[38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43], [44], [45]]. In this review, we have thoroughly examined the advancements in microwave-absorbing materials and their potential applications in electromagnetic shielding and stealth technology. This review article thoroughly investigates the various synthesis route which leads to different unique structures and morphology of the microwave absorbing materials as a result material shows various losses which also has been thoroughly explained in the review. Various parameters determining the ability of materials as an absorbing material have been summarized in a tabular form for easier access to data. We also have analysed the current research work done in this field and explored the future possibilities of utilizing various materials to create highly efficient microwave absorbers.