Enhancing the Electromagnetic Scattering Properties of Microwave Absorption Composite Materials

Lately, research has focused on the applying treatment technologies to enhance the performance properties of microwave absorber composites such as thermal, ultrasound, and epoxy treatment. Correspondingly, this paper reports on the evaluation of scattering and reflection transmission parameters using a non-contact microwave sensor for the characteristics of treated and untreated thermoplastic natural rubber microwave absorber composite incorporated micro barium ferrite fillers. Two series of these microwave absorber composites were prepared. The first series, called the untreated composite, used barium ferrite (BF) with a particle size of 3 Five different BF contents (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) were used to prepare the composites. Another set of composites with the same BF content was prepared and treated using LICA38 epoxy. Scattering parameters were measured for both sets of composites and compared. The outcome shows that the treatment of the composites improves the polarization and microwave energy absorption by increasing the electromagnetic scattering (S11) and reflection coefficients while decreasing the scattering (S21) and transmission coefficients (T). This may be attributed to the enhancement of the absorption of electromagnetic microwave energy. The treatment of the composite improves microwave absorption by 7.46
^%
and reduces the transmission of microwaves by 9.16%. The results also demonstrated better distribution of the barium ferrite filler and a decrease in the interfacial zone (voids) between the BF particles and the polymer in the treated samples. This improvement likely contributes to the enhanced mechanical properties of the treated composites, which is confirmed by morphological tests.