Shielding effectiveness study of CoZCF-MWCNT nanocomposite materials and its possible application as EM pollution reducer

Abstract

In this article, Co0.40Zn0.40Cu0.20Fe2O4 (CoZCF) nanoparticles were synthesized using sol-gel method. The Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) micrographs delineate the proper encapsulation of the soft magnetic nanoparticles inside the matrix of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and ensuring proper fabrication of the CoZCF-MWCNT nanocomposites. The X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis and Raman spectroscopy confirms the presence of the multi-phase nature of CoZCF-MWCNT nanocomposites. The static magnetic development of the nanocomposites as a function of temperature and the shielding effectiveness behavior in X-band and Ku-band of microwave radiation have been studied herein. Different static magnetic quantities were extracted. The magnetic observation confirms the presence of ferrimagnetic state with magnetization of 48.4 and 44.8 emu g−1 respectively at room temperature (RT) in CoZCF-MWCNT nanocomposites. The variation of hysteresis loop area with the lowering of temperature depicts the transformation of CoZCF-MWCNT nanocomposites from superparamagnetic to ferromagnetic state. The shielding effectiveness study was conducted in the X- and Ku- bands of electromagnetic radiation and the observation shows a high value of total shielding effectiveness (SET) of ∼ −31.3 dB corresponding to 10.7 GHz. This is due to the high of attenuation of > 99.9% and wide bandwidth. This improved SET of CoZCF-MWCNT nanocomposites gives us completely new insights for the construction of microwave absorber/Radar Absorbing Materials (RAMs) that can contest against harmful electromagnetic pollution.