Electromagnetic wave absorption properties of barium titanate/carbon nanotube hybrid nanocomposites

Barium titanate/carbon nanotube (BTO/CNT) hybrid nanocomposites were fabricated by sol-gel method. The BTO/CNT hybrid nanomaterials were characterized using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The BTO/CNT hybrid nanomaterials were then loaded in paraffin wax with different weight percentage, and pressed into toroidal shape with thickness of 1.0 mm to evaluate their complex permittivity and complex permeability using vector network analyzer. The reflection loss of the samples was calculated according to their measured complex permittivity and permeability. The minimum reflection loss of the BTO/CNT 60 wt.% hybrid nanocomposites sample with a thickness of 1.0 mm reached 29.6 dB (over 99.9% absorption) at 13.6 GHz, and also exhibited a wide response bandwidth where the frequency bandwidth of the reflection loss of less than -10 dB (over 90% absorption) was from 12.1 to 13.8 GHz. The BTO/CNT 60 wt.% hybrid nanocomposites with thickness of 1.1 mm showed a minimum reflection loss of similar to-56.5 dB (over 99.999% absorption) at 13.2 GHz and was the best absorber when compared with the other samples of different thickness. The reflection loss peak shifted to lower frequency and wider response bandwidth can be obtained as the thickness of the samples increased. The capability to modulate the absorption band of these samples to suit various applications in different frequency bands simply by manipulating their weight percentage and thickness indicates that these hybrid nanocomposites could be a promising electromagnetic wave absorber. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.