Microwave absorption properties of Fe₃O₄/PANi nanocomposites synthesized by sol-gel methods

The technological advances in the radar field are currently growing. So that it requires an absorbent material that has a high absorption capacity so that it can be applied as Radar Absorbent Material (RAM). The RAM made in this study is nanocomposite material which consists of magnetic material based on natural iron sand Fe3O4 and PANi conductive polymer. Fe₃O₄/PANi nanocomposite was made using the sol-gel method with a percentage combination of Fe₃O₄/PANi 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% and 70%. Fe₃O₄/PANi was characterized using XRD and VNA. At the culminate of XRD characterization, it was exposed that successfully synthesized Fe₃O₄/PANi nanocomposite using the sol-gel method. Fe₃O₄/PANi is a material that can be used as a microwave absorber, this is indicated by the results of characterization using VNA. In the C-Band (4-8 GHz) the maximum reflection loss is found in Fe₃O₄/PANi samples (40%) of -28,674 dB at a frequency of 6 GHz by a coefficient absorption of 0.0368 and absorption percentage of 96.32%. Whereas in the X Band (8-12 GHz) maximum reflection loss was obtained in the Fe₃O₄/PANi sample (60%) of -24.3533 dB at a frequency of 11.76 GHz, by a coefficient absorption is 0.0605 and a absorption percentage of 93.94%.