Hydrothermal synthesis and microwave absorption properties of Fe3O4 nanocrystals

Well-dispersed Fe3O4 nanocrystals were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized products were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, x-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer and vector network analysis. The complex permittivity and permeability of paraffin wax and Fe3O4 with different Fe3O4 volume fractions were measured to increase linearly with the increase in the volume fraction of Fe3O4. The magnetic loss was caused mainly by natural resonance, which is in good agreement with the Kittel equation results. When the matching thickness is 3 mm, the calculated reflection loss reaches a maximum value of -21.2 dB at 8.16 GHz with 30% volume fraction of Fe3O4.