Microwave absorbing materials using Ag-NiZn ferrite core-shell nanopowders as fillers

Silver nanoparticles coated with Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 spinel ferrites, forming a core-shell structure, were synthesized by utilizing hydrothermal method at different ferrite/silver ratio (ferrite/silver = 6/1, 4/1, 2/1, 1/1, 1/6) and introduced into polyurethane matrix to be a microwave absorber. The complex permittivity (epsilon', epsilon") and permeability (mu', mu") of absorbing composite materials consisted of ferrite/silver core-shell nanopowders and polyurethane were measured in the frequency range of 2-15 GHz. The reflection loss and matching frequency were calculated from measured data using theory of the absorbing wall for different ferrite/silver ratios. It was found that the matching frequency for reflection loss exceeded a satisfactory -25dB at 9.0 GHz for using NiZn ferrite as a filler shifts to higher frequencies (10.9-13.7 GHz) as the ferrite/silver ratio of core-shell nano-filler decreased from 6/1 to 2/1. The present result demonstrates that microwave absorbers using ferrite/silver core-shell filler can be fabricated for the applications over 9 GHz, with reflection loss more than-25 dB for specific frequencies, by controlling the ferrite/silver ratio of the core-shell nano-fillers in the composites. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.