Abstract
Anechoic chambers are responsible for testing electromagnetic interference and make use of absorption materials that absorb RF radiation. In this paper, nanocrystalline strontium titanate (ST) (SrTiO3 or ST) powder was synthesized by hydrothermal method and the fibrillar composites of ST/epoxy resin were then fabricated into thin slabs of four different weight ratios. The composite materials were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and TEM. The reflectivity of the composite materials was measured by the transmission/reflection method using a vector network analyzer R&S: ZVA40, in the X and Ku bands (8–18 GHz) and the investigation of the microwave-absorbing properties of the composites reveal that ST with higher percolation threshold in ST/epoxy resin provides up to 48 dB absorption. Moreover, it also provides a wideband response of 7.1 GHz out of the total band of 10 GHz (i.e. 8.0–18.0 GHz) below −10 dB or less.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr. C. S. Garde, Professor in the Physics Department of VIIT, Pune for his technical inputs, Dr. Raj Kumar of DIAT, Pune for his support in the measurements and Mr. Mohamed Alhousami for the help in making samples. Authors also acknowledge the BCUD, University of Pune for financial support. Special thanks to Dr. A. A. Athawale of the Department of Chemistry, University of Pune, Pune and Dr. Sudha Srivastava of TIFR, Mumbai for their all-round support. Finally, the authors would like to thank Dr. L. Devaraj Stephen, Chemistry Department of VEC for his help in TEMs and Prof. N. Lakshmana Perumal, Head of English Department of VEC for his helps in proofreading.