Flexible Radar Absorbing Nanocomposites Based on Co-ferrite/Nano Carbon/polymeric epoxy resin

Abstract

In this research work cobalt-ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple, general sol-gel auto-combustion method. For this study, electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing coatings with different weight fractions of nano-carbon and CoFe₂O₄ (which, arises from both dielectric and magnetic contributions) and polymeric epoxy resin were prepared and their characteristics were fully investigated. In this research, the physical properties of current products have been improved drastically. Values of reflection loss (RL) below -5dB can be obtained at the frequency range of 8-12 GHz for the composite with 1%wt nano-carbon and 59%wt CoFe₂O₄. As the weight fraction of nano-carbon in the composites is increased, the minimum reflection loss is reduced with a matching thickness of 1mm. This investigation concludes that hybrid EM absorbents in the form of paints, consisting of nano-sized CoFe₂O₄ and nano-carbon show excellent broad bandwidths of absorption. The structure, morphology and absorption properties are studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vector network analyzer (VNA).