Microwave-absorbing properties of de-aggregated flake-shaped carbonyl-iron particle composites at 2-18 GHz

We have investigated the microwave-absorbing properties for different shapes and aggregated states of carbonyl-iron particles dispersed in epoxy resin matrix at various volume concentrations. Here, we discuss the requirements of lower reflection coefficient for the microwave permittivity ε_r=ε´-jε´´ and permeability μ_r=μ´-jμ´´. Compared to the aggregated sphere-shaped particles (SS), the de-aggregated flake-shaped carbonyl iron particles (FS) have higher permeability, lower permittivity, better filling characteristics in epoxy resin, and better absorbing properties in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. For the FS composite with volume fraction of 0.60 at single-layer thickness of 1 mm, the calculated reflection loss at 2 GHz reaches -4.04 dB and the minimum reflection loss is -12.2 dB at 4.4 GHz, which indicates that the FS composite can be applied as a thinner microwave absorber in the S-band than if SS particles are used. The results also show that different volume concentrations can have high absorption at different wave bands, a fact on which the design of absorbing material can be based.