Microwave absorption properties of Fe3O4/PANi nanocomposites synthesized by sol-gel methods

Abstract

Abstract The technological advances in the radar field are currently growing. So that it requires an absorbent material that has a high absorption capacity so that it can be applied as Radar Absorbent Material (RAM). The RAM made in this study is nanocomposite material which consists of magnetic material based on natural iron sand Fe3O4 and PANi conductive polymer. Fe3O4/PANi nanocomposite was made using the sol-gel method with a percentage combination of Fe3O4/PANi 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% and 70%. Fe3O4/PANi was characterized using XRD and VNA. At the culminate of XRD characterization, it was exposed that successfully synthesized Fe3O4/PANi nanocomposite using the sol-gel method. Fe3O4/PANi is a material that can be used as a microwave absorber, this is indicated by the results of characterization using VNA. In the C-Band (4-8 GHz) the maximum reflection loss is found in Fe3O4/PANi samples (40%) of -28,674 dB at a frequency of 6 GHz by a coefficient absorption of 0.0368 and absorption percentage of 96.32%. Whereas in the X Band (8-12 GHz) maximum reflection loss was obtained in the Fe3O4/PANi sample (60%) of -24.3533 dB at a frequency of 11.76 GHz, by a coefficient absorption is 0.0605 and a absorption percentage of 93.94%.