Study of single layer Radar Absorber Material (RAM) based on coconut shell activated carbon

Abstract

A study of single layer Radar Absorber Material (RAM) based on coconut shell activated carbon is presented in this work. Coconut shell is resulting waste of coconut milk industry that has high carbon content. This study aims to determine the maximum absorption of coconut shell activated carbon as well as the activation effect on coconut shell carbon. The carbon was prepared using carbonization and activated using KOH and HCl. These process aims to open the pores of carbon, so the absorbance of the active carbon is increased. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Vector Network Analysis (VNA) are operated in active carbon characterization. The electromagnetic properties of these RAMs were analyzed using the waveguide technique in the frequency range of 4 to 8GHz (C-Band). The VNA result showed maximum absorption of −19.5dB at thickness of 6mm with 1M HCl activator. The SEM images show the activated carbon has more pore than non-activated carbon. The single-layer RAMs exhibited behavior of satisfy absorbers in the frequency range studied. The result shows the reflectivity response of the carbon is satisfied as RAM in the investigating frequency.