Enhanced microwave absorption properties of Y-Co2Z/PANI hexaferrites composites in the frequency range of 0.1–18 GHz

We prepared Ba_3−xY_xCo₂Fe₂₄O₄₁ (Y-Co₂Z, x = 0, 0.2, and 0.4) by the solid-state reaction method. Y-Co₂Z and polyaniline (PANI) composites (named as Y-P0, Y-P2, and Y-P4) were prepared by using the in-situ polymerization method. The Y-doping played an important role in the variation of lattice parameters, a and c. The combination of Y-doping and PANI modified the magnetic properties of the composites, which could be observed by the changing of the saturation magnetization and coercivity. This combination had also affected the electromagnetic properties of composites through the measurements of complex permittivity and permeability. Using the transmission line theory, we calculated refection loss (RL) of composites with the variation thickness of 1.00–2.50 mm. Our composites tuned the minimum RL from the X band (RL = −29.6 dB at 11.4 GHz for Y-P2) to Ku band (RL = −16.3 dB at 15.7 GHz for Y-P4 and RL = −26.4 dB at 16.6 GHz for Y-P4). For maximum effective bandwidth, our composites covered a huge range from the S and C bands (Y-P0 with 3.9 GHz in the range of 3.4–7.3 GHz) through the X band (Y-P2 with 3.9 GHz in the range of 9.0–12.9 GHz) to the Ku band (Y-P4 with 4.0 GHz in the range of 13.8–17.8 GHz). Those properties proved that the composites could act as promising absorbers in the S, C, X, and Ku bands.