Experimental and Computational Study of the Microwave Absorption Properties of Recycled <i>α</i>-Fe2O3/OPEFB Fiber/PCL Multi-Layered Composites

Abstract

The aim of this study was to fabricate multi-layered recycled α-Fe2O3/OPEFB fiber/PCL composites for microwave absorbing applications in the 1 - 4 GHz frequency range. The multi-layered composites were 6 mm thick and each consisted of a 2 mm thick layer of recycled α-Fe2O3/PCL composites at various loadings (5 wt% - 25 wt%) of 16.2 nm recycled α-Fe2O3 nanofiller, placed between two layers of 2 mm thick OPEFB fiber/PCL composites blended at a fixed ratio of 7:3. The real (ε') and imaginary (ε") components of the relative complex permittivity were measured using the open-ended coaxial probe technique and the values obtained were applied as inputs for the Finite Element Method to calculate the reflection coefficient magnitudes from which the reflection loss (RL) properties were determined. Both ε' and ε" increased linearly with recycled α-Fe2O3 nanofiller content and the values of ε' varied between 3.0 and 3.9 while the ε" values ranged between 0.26 and 0.64 within 1 - 4 GHz. The RL (dB) showed the most prominent values within the 1.38 - 1.46 GHz band with a minimum of -38 dB attained by the 25 wt% composite. Another batch of minimum values occurred in the 2.39 - 3.49 GHz range with the lowest of -25 dB at 2.8 GHz. The recycled α-Fe2O3/OPEFB fiber/PCL multi-layered composites are promising materials that can be engineered for solving noise problems in the 1 - 4 GHz range.