Eco-Friendly Fabrication of ‎Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO Nanocomposites from ‎Natural Sand for Radar Absorbing ‎Materials

This paper reports on the fabrication of Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO nanocomposites (NCs) using natural iron sand as the primary precursor for radar absorbing materials. The addition of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) was carried out to enhance the radar absorption performance of Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO NCs by improving their impedance. The X-ray diffraction patterns of Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO NCs demonstrated the inverse spinel cubic and hexagonal wurtzite structures for Fe3O4 NPs and ZnO NPs, respectively. The infrared spectra showed the presence of C=C, Fe-O, and Zn-O functional groups, which exhibited characteristics of MWCNT, Fe3O4, and ZnO, respectively. Such results were also confirmed by the results of energy dispersive X-ray investigation showing elements C, O, Fe, and Zn. The Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO NCs with superparamagnetic character decreased their saturation magnetization values due to the increasing ZnO NPs composition. Based on the optical data analysis, the bandgap energy of Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO NCs increased from 2.242 to 3.533 eV as the increasing ZnO NPs. Interestingly, the Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO NCs had a very high radar-absorbing performance ranging from 90%–99%  with an optimum reflection loss of –34.2 dB at a frequency of 11.8 GHz. Thus, it implies that the Fe3O4/MWCNT/ZnO NCs provide a great opportunity as new material for developing radar-absorbing applications. Furthermore, the use of iron sand, which is economical and abundant in nature, has a very promising potential for producing large-scale antiradar materials.