Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Properties of Structural Conductive ABS Fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling

To obtain excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials, the design of microstructures has been considered as an effective method to adjust EMW absorption performance. Owing to its inherent capability of effectively fabricating materials with complex various structures, three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has been regarded as a powerful tool to design EMW absorbers with plentiful microstructures for the adjustment of EMW absorption performance. In this work, five samples with various microstructures were prepared via fused deposition modeling (FDM). An analysis method combining theoretical simulation calculations with experimental measurements was adopted to investigate EMW absorbing properties of all samples. The wood-pile-structural sample possessed wider effective absorption bandwidth (EAB; reflection loss (RL)<-10dB, for over 90% microwave absorption) of 5.43 GHz and generated more absorption bands (C-band and Ku-band) as compared to the honeycomb-structural sample at the same thickness. Designing various microstructures via FDM proved to be a convenient and feasible method to fabricate absorbers with tunable EMW absorption properties, which provides a novel path for the preparation of EMW absorption materials with wider EAB and lower RL.