Recent advances in bifunctional microwave-absorbing and corrosion-resistant composite materials

• Classifies recent materials by corrosion-resistant components and functional mechanisms. • Identifies key challenges in performance synergy and evaluation mismatches. • Proposes future strategies including interface engineering and modeling-guided design. Microwave-absorbing materials are increasingly required to operate under harsh environments due to the rapid development of modern technologies. Corrosion poses significant threats to the performance and long-term stability of microwave-absorbing materials. In response, substantial progress has been made in developing bifunctional materials that integrate both corrosion resistance and microwave absorption capabilities. This review first introduces the fundamentals of microwave absorption and anticorrosion strategies. Recent advances in developing bifunctional materials are then discussed and categorized based on the types of corrosion-resistant components, including carbon-based, silicon-based, inorganic, and polymeric materials. Their advantages, limitations, and structure-property relations are examined accordingly. Finally, this review highlights the key gaps of current research, such as mismatched testing methods, incomplete evaluation of corrosion protection, comprised functional synergy, and insufficient theoretical guidance, and proposes strategies to address them, including establishing a unified testing framework, advancing interface engineering, and adopting theoretical-modeling-driven design to promote practical implementation.