Fe3O4/MWCNT/TiO2 nanocomposites as excellent microwave absorber material

The innovation in microwave absorbing material has increased exponentially to support telecommunication technology. Fe3O4 could be one candidate for absorber material; however, Fe3O4 still has lower permeability at high frequency and high density; thus, it fails to meet one of MAM's ideal characteristics. In this research, we try to make an excellent microwave absorber material by combining conventional microwave absorber Fe3O4 with multi-walled carbon nanotubes and TiO2 (Fe3O4/MWCNT/TiO2 nanocomposites). Structural characterization results strongly suggested that the Fe3O4/MWCNT/TiO2 nanocomposites have been successfully fabricated. The nanocomposite presented superparamagnetic properties and has a band gap energy range between 2.236 and 2.255 eV, which is suitable for microwave absorbers. We found that increased TiO2 concentration in the nanocomposite enhanced the microwave absorption performance. The maximum reflection loss of this study was 44.3 dB with thicknesses of 20 mm, in which 99% of the microwave was absorbed by Fe3O4/MWCNT/TiO2, indicating excellent microwave absorption performance.