Dielectric Characteristics and Microwave Absorption of Graphene Composite Materials

• Main Authors: Kevin Rubrice, Xavier Castel, Mohamed Himdi, Patrick Parneix
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016-10-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: multifunctional composite materials; graphene; physical properties; analytical modeling; electromagnetic absorption; complex dielectric constants
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/9/10/825

Nowadays, many types of materials are elaborated for microwave absorption applications. Carbon-based nanoparticles belong to these types of materials. Among these, graphene presents some distinctive features for electromagnetic radiation absorption and thus microwave isolation applications. In this paper, the dielectric characteristics and microwave absorption properties of epoxy resin loaded with graphene particles are presented from 2 GHz to 18 GHz. The influence of various parameters such as particle size (3 µm, 6–8 µm, and 15 µm) and weight ratio (from 5% to 25%) are presented, studied, and discussed. The sample loaded with the smallest graphene size (3 µm) and the highest weight ratio (25%) exhibits high loss tangent (tanδ = 0.36) and a middle dielectric constant ε′ = 12–14 in the 8–10 GHz frequency range. As expected, this sample also provides the highest absorption level: from 5 dB/cm at 4 GHz to 16 dB/cm at 18 GHz.