Magnetodielectric Microwave Radiation Absorbent Materials and Their Polymer Composites

Abstract

Functional radiation absorbent materials (RAMs) can transform incident microwave energy into heat energy, hence being essential to impede reflections of microwaves generated by modern radars in military, aerospace, and commercial applications. For such applications, use of composites is imperative to maintain an optimum bandwidth, enhance the magnetoelectric functional activity, ensure a flexible design, and reduce weight, which can be achieved by tuning the volume fractions of such materials. Use of ferrites is widely recommended for microwave (MW) suppression due to their appropriate magnetodielectric characteristics. This review first describes the requirements for an ideal MW absorber and accurate measurements for quantification of MW absorption. Then, the significance, applications, approaches, and experimental developments of magnetodielectric polymer composite RAMs are presented. Moreover, such composites facilitate exploration of nanoscale functional properties to achieve efficient RAMs. The permeability and permittivity at microwave frequencies, magnetic properties induced by unique elemental doping mechanisms, as well as physical and chemical properties of these composites are also presented. The resonance-dependent absorption condition for different families of magnetic ferrites, as well as the dependence of their magnetic properties on the resonant frequency and their absorption bandwidth (spinels up to 30 GHz, hexaferrites 1 GHz to 100 GHz), are presented for applications. Furthermore, magnetodielectric composites decorated with carbon fillers (carbon nanotubes/multiwall carbon nanotubes, graphene, reduced graphene oxide, etc.) with enhanced microwave absorption properties are discussed. Additionally, core–shell magnetodielectric materials are also discussed in detail. Finally, this review highlights the importance of magnetodielectric polymer composites decorated with conducting materials and core–shell magnetodielectric materials as effective broadband RAMs achieving the primary application requirement of broadband absorption of at least −10 dB with reduced thickness.