Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of amorphous metallic spheroidal- and flake-based magnetodielectric composites

Flexible, lightweight, conductive materials, having both high rf losses and high permeability, are extremely desirable for applications as electromagnetic (EM) shielding. Gas atomized spherical FeSibased ferromagnetic metallic particles, having a mean diameter of 14.6 mu m with a standard deviation of 7.3 mu m, were measured to have a room temperature saturation magnetic flux density of 1.49 T with a coercivity of 160 A/m. Ball milling of the amorphous particles led to aspect ratios from 1:1 (spherical) to > 100:1 (flake-like). Flake-like particles, suspended in paraffin, were found to not only increase the surface area of fillers enhancing the polarization mechanism but also increase the complex permeability and complex permittivity, and thus provide broadband shielding effectiveness. A loading factor of 40 vol.% of the similar to 15 mu m diameter powders provided the largest Delta W-RL (=) (-20) (dB) of 9.49 GHz (i.e., 6.55<16.04 GHz) at a coating thickness of 2 mm. Overall, powder composites show a wide absorption potential above 18 GHz for < 1.5 mm thicknesses. The optimized flake-based composites exhibit strong EM wave absorption with an SE of -40 dB and SE<- 10 dB of 17.57 GHz at 40 vol.% filler at a thickness of 1.6 mm. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Automated summary

Flexible, lightweight, and conductive materials with high rf losses and high permeability are desirable for EM shielding applications. The study demonstrates that gas atomized spherical FeSi-based ferromagnetic metallic particles, when ball milled to flake-like shape, exhibit increased absorption potential and shielding effectiveness in broadband applications.