HDPE/MWCNT composite as microwave absorber

Abstract

A HDPE/CNT composite has been fabricated based on a commercial polyethylene loaded with a high concentration of CVD grown multiwalled carbon nanotubes with a high aspect ratio. Exploiting the resulting high conductivity of this composite material, we tested the possibility to use it as absorber of electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies up to 25 GHz. For this purpose the device under test was placed as substrate of a microstrip transmission line. Measurements of the scattering parameters, done with a vectorial network analyzer, have been used in order to obtain the power absorption at different frequencies. Special attention was paid to the optimization of the microstrip geometry. A comparison of the microwave power absorption spectrum with those of commercial cavity absorbers showed encouraging results, regarding the microwave absorption capability of the HDPE/CNT composite material. © 2014 American Institute of Physics.