Electromagnetic properties of absorber fabric coated with BaFe₁₂O₁₉/MWCNTs/PANi nanocomposite in X and Ku bands frequency

Highlights: • Nonwoven fabric coated with BaFe₁₂O₁₉ (BHF) /MWCNTs/PANi nanocomposite. • The Sol-Gel BHF/MWCNTs and in-Situ polymerized BHF/MWCNTs/PANi nanocomposites. • Extraordinarily effect of PANi on the amount of radar absorption. • The maximum absorption value of more than 99% in X and Ku bands. • CNTs and PANi composite structure cooperate to boost the radar absorbing performance. - Abstract: Current investigation focuses on the electromagnetic properties of nonwoven fabric coated with BaFe₁₂O₁₉ (BHF) /MWCNTs/PANi nanocomposite in X and Ku bands. The BHF/MWCNTs and BHF/MWCNTs/PANi nanocomposites are prepared using the sol gel and in-situ polymerization methods respectively. The absorbent fabric was prepared based on applying a 40 wt% of BHF/MWCNTs/PANi nanocomposite in silicon resin on nonwoven fabric via roller coating technique The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and vector network analysis (VNA) are used to peruse microstructural, magnetic and electromagnetic features of the composite and absorber fabric respectively. The microscopic images of the fabric coated with magnetic nanocomposite shows a homogenous layer of nanoparticles on the fabric surface. The maximum reflection loss of binary nano-composite BHF/MWCNTs was measured about −28.50 dB at 11.72 GHz with 1.7 GHz bandwidth (RL < −10 dB) in X band. Moreover in Ku band, the maximum reflection loss is −29.66 dB at 15.78 GHz with 3.2 GHz bandwidths. Also the ternary nanocomposite BHF/MWCNTs/PANi exhibits a broad band absorber over a wide range of X band with a maximum reflection loss of −36.2 dB at 10.2 GHz with 1.5 GHz bandwidth and in the Ku band has arrived a maximum reflection loss of −37.65 dB at 12.84 GHz with 2.43 GHz bandwidth. This result reflects the synergistic effect of the different components with different loss mechanisms. As it is observed due to the presence of PANi in the structure of nanocomposite, the amount of absorption has increased extraordinarily. The absorber fabric exhibits a maximum reflection loss of −24.2 dB at 11.6 GHz with 4 GHz bandwidth in X band. However, in Ku band, the absorber fabric has had the maximum absorption in 16.88 GHz that is about −24.34 dB with 6 GHz bandwidth. Therefore, results indicate that the fabric samples coated represents appreciable maximum absorption value of more than 99% in X and Ku bands which can be attributed to presence of carbon and polyaniline structure in composite material.