Graphene and MWCNT: Potential Candidate for Microwave Absorbing Materials

Abstract

Currently a wide range of materials are used for the design and development of microwave absorbing material or RADAR absorbing materials (RAMs). The microwave has two components, electric and magnetic which are acting perpendicular to each other. So, in order to make materials microwave invisible, it is required to cancel out both of these components, when material is exposed to microwave i.e. reduction of radar cross section (RCS). The RAMs should capable of cancelling out both the magnetic and electrical components of the electromagnetic radiation for an effective absorption. Generally this has been achieved by incorporating magnetic and electrically conducting fillers into a matrix. But here we want to study the microwave absorption ability of Graphene/MWCNT itself in TPU matrix. We prepared the material with 10% loading and sample thickness kept at 2 mm. Field Emission Scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) used for morphological study and scattering parameters were measured in X-band region by using a Vector Network Analyzer. Result showed that Graphene has better absorption capability than MWCNT.