Polyaniline (PANI) nanorod arrays were facilely grown on the surface of carbon microspheres via a simple dilute polymerization. The as-synthesized carbon@polyaniline nanorod arrays microspheres (C@PANI) show specific waxberry-like shape, and exhibit superior microwave absorption capacities compared with pure PANI and carbon microsphere. The minimum reflection loss (RL) value of C@PANI microspheres reaches -59.6 dB at 15.5 GHz with a thin thickness of 2.2 mm and the effective bandwidth (reflection loss values of less than -10 dB) is as wide as 5.4 GHz (from 12.6 to 18 GHz). The in-depth analyses of the geometrical shape and composition relationship demonstrate that the enhanced microwave absorption properties of C@PANI microspheres was mainly correlate with the unique PANI nanorod arrays and synergistic effect. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.