Facile preparation of an enhanced microwave absorbing based on polyester composite containing Ca3Al2Si3O12, polyaniline, and spinel ferrite (Cu, Mg, and Ni) nanoparticles

This work studies microwave absorption properties of the polyester composite containing the nanoparticles of Ca3Al2Si3O12/polyaniline/(Cu, Mg, and Ni) spinel ferrite. For this purpose, the nanoparticles were firstly prepared using clear methods. Then, the synthesized nanoparticles were placed into a polyester matrix. The structural characteristics of the synthesized nanocomposites have been investigated by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to determine functional groups in the synthesized nanoparticles. Besides, microwave absorption performance has been examined by a vector network analysis (VNA) in the frequency domain of 8-12 GHz. The experimental design was performed by the Taguchi method to determine the optimal sample with the highest microwave absorption and good impedance matching. Factors considered include the type of metal cation (Cu, Ni, and Mg) in spinel ferrite, and the amounts of spinel ferrite, Ca3Al2Si3O12, and polyaniline. The results showed that the adsorbent synthesized under optimum conditions has minimum reflectance loss (RLmin) of -37 dB at 10.5 GHz with 1.9 mm thickness. Therefore, the polyester composites containing Cu spinel ferrite/Ca3Al2Si3O12/poly-aniline nanoparticles have a high potential for a good microwave absorber.