Author(s)

Ebenezer Ekow Mensah^1*, Raba’ah Syahidah Azis^2,3, Zulkifly Abbas²

¹Department of Integrated Science Education, Faculty of Science Education, Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, Mampong, Ashanti, Ghana.
²Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia.
³Institute of Advanced Materials, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia.

The aim of this study was to fabricate multi-layered recycled α-Fe₂O₃/OPEFB fiber/PCL composites for microwave absorbing applications in the 1 - 4 GHz frequency range. The multi-layered composites were 6 mm thick and each consisted of a 2 mm thick layer of recycled α-Fe₂O₃/PCL composites at various loadings (5 wt% - 25 wt%) of 16.2 nm recycled α-Fe₂O₃ nanofiller, placed between two layers of 2 mm thick OPEFB fiber/PCL composites blended at a fixed ratio of 7:3. The real (ε') and imaginary (ε") components of the relative complex permittivity were measured using the open-ended coaxial probe technique and the values obtained were applied as inputs for the Finite Element Method to calculate the reflection coefficient magnitudes from which the reflection loss (RL) properties were determined. Both ε' and ε" increased linearly with recycled α-Fe₂O₃ nanofiller content and the values of ε' varied between 3.0 and 3.9 while the ε" values ranged between 0.26 and 0.64 within 1 - 4 GHz. The RL (dB) showed the most prominent values within the 1.38 - 1.46 GHz band with a minimum of -38 dB attained by the 25 wt% composite. Another batch of minimum values occurred in the 2.39 - 3.49 GHz range with the lowest of -25 dB at 2.8 GHz. The recycled α-Fe₂O₃/OPEFB fiber/PCL multi-layered composites are promising materials that can be engineered for solving noise problems in the 1 - 4 GHz range.

Multi-Layered Composites, Recycled α-Fe2O3, Reflection Loss, OPEFB Fiber, Relative Complex Permittivity

Mensah, E. , Azis, R. and Abbas, Z. (2022) Experimental and Computational Study of the Microwave Absorption Properties of Recycled α-Fe2O3/OPEFB Fiber/PCL Multi-Layered Composites. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 10, 30-41. doi: 10.4236/msce.2022.103003.