Synthesis of the Microwave Absorber Fe3O4/CFs Nanocomposite Via Electrophoretic Deposition With a Wide Effective Absorption Bandwidth

In this study, the structural, magnetic and microwave absorption properties of a microwave absorber composite fabricated through electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of Fe3O4 nano-particles on carbon fibers (CFs) were studied. Firstly, co-precipitation method was employed to synthesize the Fe3O4 nano-particles. Then, these as-synthesized Fe3O4 nano-particles were successfully deposited on CFs using a modified EPD process. The measured magnetic properties of the as-synthesized Fe3O4 nano-powder and the Fe3O4/CFs nano-composite showed that the saturation magnetization of the bare Fe3O4 was decreased from 72.3 to 33.1 emu/g for the Fe3O4/CFs nano-composite and also its corecivity was increased from 4.9 to 168 Oe for the nano-composite. The results of reflection loss (RL) measurements in the 8.2- 12.4 GHz frequency range indicated that the RL of Fe3O4/CFs nano-composites are significantly influenced by their thickness. The maximum RL value of -10.2 dB at 10 GHz with an effective absorption bandwidth about 2 GHz was obtained for the sample with the thickness of 2 mm.