A comparison between magnetic and reflection loss characteristics of substituted strontium ferrite and nanocomposites of ferrite/carbon nanotubes

Large-scale carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/substituted strontium ferrite nanocomposites have been fabricated by hetero-coagulation. The structure and morphology of nanoparticles and nanocomposites were evaluated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). HRTEM confirmed that strontium ferrite was successfully attached to carbon nanotubes. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) confirmed the relatively strong dependence of saturation magnetization with the volume percentage of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Reflection loss of nanocomposites at 12-18 GHz was evidently enhanced, as compared to that of strontium ferrite nanoparticles. The maximum reflection loss increased significantly with an increase in volume percentage of MWCNTs. It was proved that the microwave absorbing bandwidth was modulated simply by manipulating the thickness of nanocomposites. Reflection loss evaluations indicate that the nanocomposites display a great potential application as wide-band electromagnetic wave absorbers. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3683012]