The effect of conduction loss on microwave absorption performance of Fe-doped NiCo2O4 spinel oxide

Abstract

Strong absorption and large bandwidth are two contributors to material’s electromagnetic wave absorbing performance. While spinel ferrite materials have garnered extensive attention in the realm of microwave absorption, their relatively low conductivity remains a practical challenge.In this work, NiCo2-xFexO4 (x = 0, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08) precursor was prepared by hydrothermal and after-sintered method. It was found that Fe doping exhibit excellent EM absorption properties. Specially, when the Fe content is 0.08, the maximum reflection loss -48.90 dB at 15.40 GHz and the maximum effective bandwidth 4.20 GHz are achieved. More importantly, the absorption frequency can be broadened from Ku to C band even to S band with proper adjusting Fe content. Doping with Fe enhances conduction loss and make a significant contribution to dielectric loss, as a result, the impedance matching degree of the Fe-NiCo2O4 composite is influenced by the synergistic effect of its dielectric and magnetic properties. This work provides a simple way for enhancing the microwave absorption capabilities of ferrite materials and provides insight into understanding conduction loss in microwave absorption.