Conducting-polymer-based radar-absorbing materials

Abstract

The controllability of conductivity and the ease of manufacturing/coating of conducting polymers enable tailor- made dielectric loss components for radar absorbing materials (RAM). Different polypyrrole (PPy) based RAM, e.g. paint/rubber containing PPy powder and PPy coated structural phenolic foams with a gradient of impedance, have been examined. Reflection loss strongly depends on thickness and complex permittivity of the material. For a single layer material, the optimum values of the real part, (epsilon) ', and imaginary part, (epsilon) , of the complex permittivity required to achieve a minimum reflectivity at a given sample thickness are found by theoretical calculations. The conductivity of the PPy powder is controlled to obtain RAM with lowest reflectivity according to the calculated optimum values of (epsilon) ' and (epsilon) . A paint panel containing 2 wt% of the PPy powder with a thickness of 2.5 mm exhibits a reflectivity less than $minus 10 dB over 12 to 18 GHz. Blending and milling in the manufacturing process can destroy the original fibrous shape of PPy aggregates leading to low absorbing performances. PPy can be coated on rigid or flexible open cell foams to provide a lightweight broadband RAM. In particular, a coating technique on phenolic foams (12 - 15 mm thick) with a pore size of micrometer order has been developed to generate a gradient of conductivity across the foam thickness. The PPy coated foams are broadband RAM.